Lucy's Bright Love
by LyraKatori
Summary: After Natsu cheats on Lucy with Lisanna while also kicking his ex off of the team, the blonde mage feels utterly heartbroken and goes home to cry. The next day, Lucy takes on a dangerous job to pay her rent and nearly gets killed by the enemy. She is saved by a caring guy from Sabertooth, and ends up learning new magic. Can love heal her emotional pain? Please read & Review.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **Love and Betrayal**

* * *

Lucy had arrived at the Fairy Tail guild this morning to meet up with her boyfriend Natsu for a job that she would go on with him and Happy, but she looked a bit surprised to see that the fire dragon slayer and the cute blue Exceed were nowhere to be found. It was not like them to miss the daily task of going on exciting jobs, having fun new adventures that might end in disaster, and Lucy Heartfilia was really surprised to see that her friends were not in the guild right now. Things were really quiet on this sunny morning with a clear blue sky, but perhaps things were a little too quiet.

As the blonde mage began to walk into the guild, after having looked around the guildhall with her cocoa brown eyes while she had been standing in the doorway, the various conversations between many of the mages had abruptly come to halt when their eyes took notice of Lucy. Some people even looked a bit shocked to see her here, but the expressions on their faces did not show that it was a bad kind of shock. They seemed more surprised in a curious manner to see her still having a soft smile on her face, almost like they knew something that she certainly did not.

She tried her best to maintain the small smile, not wanting to break the awkward silence for any kind of drama to ensue, and Lucy walked over to a table near the bar where her friend Cana had been sitting. The two girls had become great friends, ever since Lucy volunteered to help Cana with the S-Class exam that had taken place on Tenrou Island back in X784, and Lucy was hoping that her brown-haired friend would be the one to tell her what the silence was all about. She had always taken a shower every morning, so she couldn't possibly smell bad. Lucy had always dressed in a stylish manner as well, and no one had ever been jealous. What was going on?

Even if she and Natsu had met up at the guild today, the quietness of the other people in the guild would still ensue while the pink-haired dragon slayer would laugh happily as he went on a job with Lucy. The eerie silence had been going on for twelve months now, and let's just say that Natsu admitted something to the guild twelve months prior to the start of the silence. He had admitted this little secret to the guild when Lucy had been too sick with a cold to go out on a job one day, and this was a pretty big secret that the guild was keeping from her. It hadn't really been that big of a deal to people, until Natsu actually started dating someone else while he had been dating Lucy for 13 months as well.

See, after the Grand Magic Games of X791 had ended with Fairy Tail winning, Lisanna Strauss had come clean with her feelings about Natsu. She had really liked the way that he was always so strong, never wanting to give up in tough situations, and the white-haired mage had found herself attracted to his goofy grin. Natsu's dense but fiery personality had been something that made Lisanna love him, and he had always loved how good she looked in swimsuits. Natsu had also loved how kind and gentle Lisanna had acted, even being caring enough to soothe ferocious animals. He was on a job with her right now, but could he possibly show up right now for Lucy to see that?

Lucy had also loved how Natsu could be so fierce and determined at times, and the blonde mage had always found herself blushing a light shade of pink when he would rescue her from dangerous monsters or save her from bandits. Natsu and Lucy had even shared wonderful kisses of love when the jobs were done, and they would even sleep in Lucy's bed together on some nights. The fire dragon slayer would keep her warm with the heat from his body, but she also did not know that he had been sleeping with Lisanna as well. He had also been sharing kisses with her after missions, and Natsu had even bought Lisanna gifts while buying nothing for Lucy.

She had always thought that he was too busy spending all of his jewels on food, always using up his cash so fast, but that was definitely not the case. Lucy had been in love with a guy who she thought was the best guy ever, but her assumptions were wrong. She had trusted Natsu enough to never assume that there were any problems that could cause trouble in their relationship, and the possibility of him being a cheater had never even crossed her mind. She loved Natsu with all of her heart, but he had been loving Lisanna more and more with each passing day.

The blonde girl would even wake up to her bed feeling really cold with no warmth, obviously meaning that Natsu had left her apartment, and he had always told her that he goes out for hot coffee from the cafes in Magnolia every morning. The part about the coffee was actually true, but he only used its sugary deliciousness to meet up faster with Lisanna and continue their relationship. When Lucy arrived at the guild every day, Lisanna had pretended to walk out of Fairy Tail's entrance doors to supposedly go out on a job. However, she would simply turn into a bird while Natsu had wanted her to never feel left alone when he was making Lucy happy to give her a false sense of security.

Really, Natsu was a total cheater for doing this. He had told Lisanna to stalk him and Lucy from afar while they were on jobs, and the fire dragon slayer would sometimes go to a different part of town to make out with his blue-eyed girlfriend. He had always loved that calming look of sweetness in Lisanna's eyes, loving how her skin felt so smooth and warm while they would hug, but cheating on Lucy was not the right way to move on to someone else. He had not wanted to tell Lucy about how her performance on missions was nothing compared to how Lisanna was so fast and strong, and Natsu knew that breaking Lucy's heart would just cause total emotional chaos to break loose.

Lucy asked Cana in a calm manner while smiling softly, her ears taking in the fact that people were starting to chat again while discussing topics that were different from the ones that were being talked about before the blonde mage had entered the guild today, "Hi, Cana. Did Natsu show up to the guild today, or do you think that he could be running late? He knows that we do jobs together as a team, right?"

The brown-haired mage replied kindly, putting on a happy smile to not ruin Lucy's seemingly cheery mood while they sat down together at the table, "Natsu hasn't shown up to the guild at all, Lucy. Maybe he's just really busy with some things that he has to take care of, or maybe he's busy fighting off a group of bandits. After all, you know how he loves to fight in exciting battles. He could also be trying to find the right present to give you as an added bonus for a trip that's coming up, and you hopefully won't have to see him be having double the excitement if he or a certain someone wins the prize to be at the resort."

Cana quickly covered her own mouth after saying that last part, really hoping that Lucy had no clue about what that meant, but the card mage also could tell that her own purple eyes were showing a look that swayed between shock and guilt. She felt really horrible about not being able to tell her own best friend about how Natsu had been cheating on her with Lisanna, and it was mainly because Lucy was really sensitive with her emotions. Cana did not know how Lucy could ever handle the news of being deceived by the guy who she really loved, and trying to say comforting words after revealing such a big secret would only make things worse.

She could see on the corner of her left eye that Mira also looked nervous about how Cana had nearly let the news slip right out of her mouth, and the white-haired barmaid also knew that Lucy might not take it too well. Even though Mirajane was happy that her younger sister had finally found a boyfriend, she did not exactly expect it to be the guy who had already been dating Lucy. She wanted everyone to be happy, but Natsu was being totally deceitful to Lucy. Besides, it's not like fate was going to let Lucy be in the dark forever.

As she looked down at the cute black top that she was wearing, along with an orange miniskirt, Lucy gasped in shock while realizing that she had left her Celestial Spirit Keys at home by accident. The blonde mage had gone out of her apartment so fast to meet up with Natsu today, clumsily leaving her keys behind, and this would mean that she would now have to run back home to get them. Even though this was a slight setback to Lucy's chance of seeing her pink-haired boyfriend show up at the guild today, it would actually give her some more time for fate to make a way to let her see the truth about Natsu.

With happiness in her cocoa brown eyes, Lucy smiled a bit while telling Cana that she would be back after getting her keys from her apartment. She got up from the table, before proceeding to run out of the guildhall to go back home. As Lucy was about to run down the guild's stairs, however, she found herself suddenly having to jump down into a blueberry bush that was on the left side of the staircase. She wasn't exactly trying to practice her skills in hiding, but she had seen something very strange in that one moment before she decided to hide.

Natsu had been walking up the dirt path towards the guild, laughing happily about something, but Lucy narrowed her brown eyes while she had no interest in what was so funny. She wanted to know why her boyfriend had been holding hands with Lisanna, and she seemed to be blushing happily while he had licked some cake icing off of her cheek. She had rested her head against his left shoulder while they kept getting closer to the Fairy Tail guild, looking like a couple that was happily in love, and Lucy looked miffed at the sight of Natsu tickling Lisanna's rear with his other hand to get her blushing excitedly. He never did that for Lucy, and he certainly wasn't planning to.

Lucy could not believe how they were acting so cute together, but she wasn't paranoid enough to assume right away that there was something going on between Natsu and Lisanna. She needed to gather more information about this matter, and it had to be the correct info. Disinformation was something that had a tendency to be worse than having no information at all, and Lucy was going to find out exactly what was going on. Her smile had turned into a rather stern look, and Lucy's brown eyes had followed the duo while they were now walking up the stairs to the Fairy Tail guild. As they wasted no time entering the building, Lucy was glad that they kept the doors open.

Being around the blueberries had definitely had an effect on Lucy's scent, especially since these were magically-created blueberries that gave off the strong heavenly aroma of blueberry pancakes, and that would surely help her stay hidden from the sensitive nose of Natsu while she would be doing her best to listen in on every single word that would be spoken in the guild. Natsu had to have some reason for coming back to the guild with Lisanna, and Lucy was pretty sure that there was no job simple enough to where cake just needed to be eaten. It was pretty obvious that they had been out somewhere, but Lucy would have to come back later to ask about what they were doing.

* * *

 **Ten minutes later...**

After retrieving the ten Celestial Spirit Keys from her home, moving quickly to get a chance at seeing what Natsu was doing with Lisanna, Lucy had returned to the guild of Fairy Tail to see that the doors were still open. That was good for Lucy, since they would not creak open loudly to let anyone know that she had come back, and she walked into the guildhall to see that people were now talking to each other. They weren't being so quiet and weird like before, mainly because of the fact that Lisanna had come back to brighten their spirits with her kind personality, but it seemed like Gajeel, Juvia, and Wendy were still out on their jobs.

They were actually the only people who would even see that Lucy existed, since they had joined the guild of Fairy Tail before even knowing about Lisanna, but the blonde mage was now alone while she had to deal with the fact that people would now be ignoring her. They would always ask Lisanna for opinions on various things, not even caring that Lucy would be the nearest person in the room, and the blonde girl hid behind a nearby table quickly as she saw Mira turn her head towards the entrance doors of this rowdy little guild. After all, having Mira announce that Lucy was back would just cause a few lies to hastily be made.

Her eyes slowly looked up from the chair to see the sight of Lisanna sitting next to Natsu at the bar, giggling with joy as she loved what he was telling her, and Lucy's brown eyes widened in shock from seeing that there was only one large cup of hot chocolate on the counter. It was situated perfectly to be in between them, filled with sugar that was sweet like their personal love, but seeing the fire dragon slayer and his white-haired girlfriend put two straws in that drink had made Lucy feel pretty bitter. Natsu had told her that putting two straws in a drink was something that only they would ever do together, but he was definitely lying.

As Lucy kept watching the happy couple be cheerful, Mira put a large chocolate ice cream cake on a plate for them to share as well. It was made to look like a giant Oreo cookie that had peanut butter ice cream in the middle instead of the typical vanilla flavor, looking so incredibly delicious, and that made Lucy clench her fists in anger. Natsu had said that the only desserts he'd share would always be with her, never going to split the sweetness with anyone else, but that was certainly another lie. He had been lying to Lucy about promises, something that should never be done, and this new relationship of his had really made her feel blindsided.

He had taken a bite of the ice cream cake, using a spoon to feed some of it to Lisanna, and she blushed happily while he fed her like she was his princess. Lucy had never been fed by Natsu before, nor did he gently give her a kiss on the cheek to show her how much he had loved her. Lucy felt totally disgusted from seeing them together, especially since that little kiss on the cheek let her know that he had really been asking for a breakup, but what happened next would surely make Lucy want to scream. Really, she would not even go over there to slam that ice cream in Natsu's face because of what he would say.

"Hey, Lisanna. Not having you on the team just makes me feel down, since you're so strong and smart, and I really think that we would work very well together. You'd be the perfect addition to Team Natsu, and Erza would love having you go out on jobs with us! Even that ice stripper Gray told me that you'd help us keep the team strong, so please join up with us. I'd be so happy to fight by your side, working so very hard to please you, and even your Tigress outfit totally gets me fired up! You can take Lucy's place on the team, and she'll be happy to know that there will be no more missions where she gets kidnapped. I always have to end up saving her, and she's so weak. By the way, I won't tell the others about ousting Lucy at all." Natsu told his new girlfriend in a loving tone, chuckling a bit while giving her his signature grin of confidence.

The blue-eyed girl replied in a sweet manner while she took Natsu's hands in hers, happy to accept his offer, "Of course I'll join your team, Natsu! I'm so glad that you all want to work with me, and I would love to help you all on jobs! Erza and Gray are definitely strong like us, and we'll make the team become even stronger! By the way, I'm sure that Lucy will be very happy to know she's been kicked off the team. When she comes into Fairy Tail, she'll even get to hear the good news about us being a happy couple as well. She can even watch our team set off on the boat to that resort you told me about, since all four of us entered the contest, and Lucy can see us kiss like we always do."

Upon hearing what Natsu and Lisanna had just been talking about, Lucy could only hide behind the table while feeling crushed. Natsu was planning to make Lisanna have a spot on the team while ousting his first girlfriend? On top of that, he had thought that she was weak and bringing the team down? Also, the pink-haired male had the nerve to enter a contest to a resort while he and Lisanna wanted to take that trip together with Erza and Gray? She could not believe that her nakama had not even asked her about coming along, nor did they have the decency to ask her if she wanted to be off the team.

As she looked over the table to see Natsu kissing Lisanna's lips while both mages were blushing with affection, Natsu standing up to now have Lisanna in his arms, tears welled up in Lucy's eyes. She could see why people mostly ignored her, preferring to share their times of joy with Lisanna, and it was all because they loved seeing her be Natsu's girlfriend. They looked like a cute couple that anyone could admire, but Lucy certainly didn't like seeing them together. She felt hurt by the basic fact that her boyfriend had just cheated on her, lied to her, and he thought that she was only bringing the team down.

Lucy had really wanted to reveal herself to Natsu, being angry about the fact that she heard every word that him and Lisanna had just said, but would that really change anything? She quietly wished that the girl in Natsu's arms was her, really wishing that he had not broken their relationship like this, but Natsu cared more for Lisanna. She got out from behind the table to quietly leave the Fairy Tail guild, her cocoa brown eyes letting the tears fall while she wanted to cry far from Natsu, and she ran down the stairs to go home. Lucy was feeling so betrayed right now, and Natsu's actions had definitely not made her feel happy in any way.

* * *

 **At Lucy's apartment...**

Lucy had ran all the way to her apartment with tears in her eyes, and she angrily opened the door before quickly slamming it shut. She was feeling hurt, angry, confused, jealous, distraught, and Lucy's heart had broken. She was emotionally hurting right now, and Lucy even took a photo of herself and Natsu out of the frame to tear it up into pieces while she screamed in pure anger at the fact that he had kissed another woman while being with her for nearly twelve months. Those were the months where he had been leading Lucy on, only loving her for truly one month, and he had been lying to her while forming chemistry with Lisanna. The guild had lied to her, and all of those people were supposedly her friends.

Her cocoa brown eyes widened in shock upon remembering when Cana had covered her mouth after saying that Natsu would be happy twice on his vacation, and that is what she had meant. He would just leave without Lucy to spare her the times that he would be lying to her, but he would certainly be enjoying his time at the resort with Lisanna. The thought of those two even eating together or cuddling together had made Lucy feel complete sorrow, but she still felt anger at the fact that they would be having such a sweet and happy relationship while she had meant nothing at all to Natsu.

In fact, Natsu and Lisanna had even gotten friendly before Fairy Tail had won the Grand Magic Games. They would always be having discussions about the movies that they liked, the favorite kinds of music that they enjoyed to hear, the video games that they had both enjoyed playing together, and Lucy remembered it all. Natsu and Lisanna had even gone to a bookstore for manga in Crocus one morning, and Lucy could only watch through a glass window while they were drinking lattes as they giggled to each other about certain things. Lucy slammed her fist against the wall of her bedroom for missing so many signs of foreshadowing, and she hated herself for trusting Natsu for so long.

She shouted angrily while throwing a blue vase at the wall, tears continuing to make their way down her face as her body trembled with wavering emotions, "I was so stupid to never notice how he always had to leave me in the mornings, and he always had to leave me after we got jobs done to go somewhere else! I even smelled perfume on him one time, but I mistook it for cologne! How could I be such an idiot to not notice the signs that had been coming my way?! All this time, he had been wanting her! He never wanted me as his girlfriend, and they were probably kissing at the beach! He was always out of money because he always spent it on her, I bet!"

The blonde mage was breathing heavily while her eyes had turned red and puffy from crying so much, and she was really upset about the way that Natsu had cheated on her with a woman who he thought was better than her in every way. What did Lucy ever do to deserve such harshness from her own boyfriend? She had been so nice and caring towards Natsu, and now he had made his choice. The pink-haired male wanted the younger Strauss sister to be his true girlfriend, and he had always been spouting lies to Lucy. If she wasn't needed by him or a bunch of people who chose to keep secrets from her, then why would she need to deal with Natsu's lies anymore?

Heading straight to the kitchen, Lucy had a plan to get her revenge on Natsu. She was going to let him know that his actions had caused bad karma to befall him, and Lucy was also going to disappear from the guild of people who had totally given her the impression that everything was fine in her relationship. She had truly thought that Cana was her best friend who could tell her anything of importance, no matter how big the matter truly was, but Lucy had been wrong. Her poor judgement had now shown its consequences, but she was going to make up for them by showing Natsu that he was about to regret what he had done.

Lucy had been looking at the knives on her kitchen counter for a few minutes now, having the idea that taking her own life would make Natsu and the guild feel incredibly horrible for what they had done to her, but the blonde mage actually began to have a few little thoughts in her mind. What good was it for her to stick around in Fairy Tail, if she was being lied to by her own friends? It would probably do Lucy some good to take a vacation out of Magnolia for a while, not really interested in seeing that jerk Natsu happily cuddle with Lisanna, and maybe she would end up finding the right person to be with. Of course, she would be leaving a note for her cheating boyfriend to find while she would leave overnight.

If he had seen it, he would definitely throw a fit. However, the current situation really did not give him the right to really gripe about anything. He had cheated on Lucy with Lisanna, wanting to be with the girl who had seemed to be much more fun and enjoyable to him, so Lucy was going to leave his life for a while. She was also going to leave the lives of everyone in Fairy Tail for keeping her in the dark about Natsu's new love, and she didn't even want to know if the guild would give a bunch of presents to the happy couple for the possible chance that they'd win that great trip. If Lucy was there to see them off, her only presents would be a kick to the groin for Natsu and a push into the sea for Lisanna. Natsu had been making things hot for Lisanna, but what he had done to Lucy was totally cold.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 1? Sorry for being away for so long. I was sick with the flu, and my boyfriend recently dumped me and cheated on me. It's such a shame that my recent story got reported while I was thinking up new ideas for the next chapter of "Love Is Bright Like A Light", but you know what? That will probably give me an opportunity to improve on some aspects that were poorly done in that story. It could end in StiCy or NaLu, based on what happens. The more you guys read and review this story, the more I'll update. That's fair, right?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **New Job & Old Chateau, Part 1**

* * *

After she had seen Natsu and Lisanna kiss right before her eyes on what was supposed to be a pretty great morning, Lucy had spent the entire night crying about the fact that Natsu had tricked her into believing that their relationship meant something to him. She was planning to leave the guild for the prospect of starting a new life, not wanting to see her cheating boyfriend try and make her happy like he was loyal to her, and Lucy wanted to go far away from him. After all, it would definitely not do her any good to stay in Fairy Tail while people would be trying to hide things from her. Fake friendships certainly were horrible, right?

It would truly be the perfect way to get payback on the people who had the nerve to keep Natsu's affair with Lisanna from reaching the ears of Lucy, and she would definitely not be sad to be leaving them behind. She was still mad at herself for putting so much trust into a guy who she had really liked, only for him to throw it all away because he thought that Lisanna was so much better, and Lucy never wanted to go through that kind of pain ever again. She could even bet that those two were sleeping together right now, happily cuddling together while sharing sweet kisses.

Lucy let out a sad sigh while she stared up at the ceiling, laying in her bed while she wore her cute pink pajamas. She definitely was angry with Natsu, but she was also having doubts about herself as well. If he had also liked Lisanna for being strong, then had Natsu always thought that Lucy was weak? A frown appeared on her face while she also had to wonder if that's what her former friends in the guild had thought as well. Lucy knew very well that she used ten of the Golden Zodiac Gate Keys to be able to get some assistance on jobs, but that did not make her completely weak.

She could only open up two gates at one time, draining most of her magical power and physical strength in the process, and the negative thoughts in her mind were preventing Lucy from going to sleep easily. The blonde mage did not exactly know that anger came with depression sometimes, and she turned on her side to stare out the window at the night sky while wondering about what she could do to improve herself. She did not want to become stronger to impress Natsu, but Lucy wanted to get better to show herself that she could change.

Narrowing her cocoa brown eyes, she kept remembering all of the times that Natsu always had to go somewhere. He was always leaving her in the mornings, or saying that he was going to be busy for a few hours, but he had always been sneaking around behind Lucy's back to be with Lisanna. He had wanted to break up with Lucy, but it wouldn't exactly be a good move for him to say that he was leaving Lucy to be with Lisanna. The celestial wizard felt really idiotic for always believing every single lie that the fire dragon slayer had sent her way, and she knew that the trust between them had now been broken.

As Lucy hated Natsu for deceiving her, she also had to keep thinking about her plan. If she had left without saying a word, that would surely make people get suspicious about her absence in the guild. However, she could always leave a note to someone that she had trusted. The only members who had not been in the guild earlier were Wendy and Carla, most likely having been out on a job at the time, and they also weren't really bent on remembering secrets about a person's love life. Wendy and Carla did not really care for love that much, but they had also stayed neutral to not get on the bad sides of Natsu or Lucy.

While it was good to know that Lucy could still consider those two as her possible friends in Fairy Tail, she also had to wonder if anybody would ever like her later on in the future. Lucy knew that there were decent guys and girls out there, but who was the one for her? She knew that there were many different personalities, since there were many people in Fiore, but what guy would truly be attracted to her? Also, would the person be faithful enough to not cheat or lie like Natsu? Lucy had to think about so many different factors that could affect a relationship, and she groaned in frustration while trying her best to fall asleep.

Lucy's depression had eventually lost out to her feelings of stress and fatigue, causing the blonde girl to pass out while she laid in her comfy bed, and she began sleeping soundly after a few minutes. While Lucy looked depressed as she slept, she did not even hear the sounds of glass breaking in the distance while her former guild seemed to be having a party for Natsu and Lisanna getting their 100th job done. The music had not been loud enough to be blaring in Lucy's ears, but she had been able to hear it before she lost consciousness. The guild had been rowdy, but not to the point where glass had ever been broken.

Resting comfortably in her bed, Lucy's body shivered while she could still feel the cold air that was inside her home. She opened her eyes while truly knowing that sleeping soundly was not possible right now, having an unhappy look on her face, and it was no surprise that Lucy did miss the love she had with Natsu. Being loved was a pretty good feeling that a girl could truly enjoy, and Lucy had really thought that Natsu could make her feel happy. He seemed to be such a great guy with a goofy grin on his face, always being so awesome on jobs, but his recent actions had really shattered Lucy's initial likeness towards the fire dragon slayer.

He had not only been seeing another girl behind Lucy's back, but Natsu had made people exclude her because they did not want to tell her about his secret love affair with Lisanna. More tears fell from Lucy's brown eyes while she felt really bad about her decision to date him. Judging by all of the emotions that were going through her head right now, it seemed like Lucy had really given her heart to Natsu. She had opened up her emotions and desire of love to him, really wanting to be the girl who could make him happy, but Natsu had just set her heart aflame. She had been so loyal and loving to him, and he just scorched her heart to burn her out of his love life while he could cuddle with Lisanna.

Lucy really had to wonder why things had to turn out like this, since she had never done a single thing to make Natsu dislike her, and she could only assume that he just wanted to date a girl who had everything that appealed to him. Well, what qualities would make him turn away from Lucy? It was true that she would've freaked out if he had told her that they should break up because of his feelings for Lisanna, but was that not a natural reaction? Lucy did tend to mess up on jobs sometimes, as well as getting kidnapped, making her sadly sigh while seeing that her flaws were getting in the way of Natsu having love for her.

* * *

 **Seven hours later...**

Lucy woke up to the sound of her alarm clock ringing loudly, shaking while it was next to a stack of papers that the blonde girl had been writing for a new novel, and she shut off the alarm clock with her left hand. She sat up in the bed while letting out a loud yawn, and the sunlight shined down on Lucy's face. Daylight had now made her apartment look brighter, and Lucy stretched her body out while feeling her muscles click and pop. She raised her arms high above her head, and Lucy had hoped that today would be a better day than yesterday.

She had dreamed about nothing, really, since she had been so exhausted from the stress that her dense ex-boyfriend had caused her. Lucy even felt like it would be a good idea to go the guild, mainly for the purpose of telling him that she was going to be out of his life for a long time, but even seeing him with Lisanna would just make Lucy feel upset. Just because Lisanna was stronger and faster than Lucy was, that still did not give Natsu the right to cheat on her. Even if Lisanna was kinder, making him feel so happy in every moment that they were together, that did not mean Lucy couldn't have done the same.

She heard her stomach growl louder than normal, most likely because she did not have dinner last night, and Lucy made up for that mistake by quickly going to the kitchen for breakfast to be made. She took four waffles out of the freezer, putting them in the white toaster that was plugged in on the kitchen counter, and Lucy pulled the lever down to let her waffles go down into the toaster to be cooked to perfection. They were blueberry waffles as well, so they would certainly be tasting delicious after they were done.

While the waffles were getting heated up, Lucy smiled a bit as she remembered that a message had to be left to Wendy and Carla. They were still her friends, after all, and Lucy wanted them to know that she was still their friend as well. She had a calm look in her cocoa brown eyes while she went back to her desk to get a pen, and Lucy also got a blank piece of paper to write on. She knew that the members of Team Natsu were most likely expecting her to be at the guild in 55 minutes, so Lucy wrote the letter fast while she also knew that she had to be neat with her penmanship.

Even though she knew perfectly well that the members of Team Natsu would not even really care to see her, since Natsu and Lisanna would probably be making out like a happy couple, Lucy knew that she had another issue on her plate right now. Her rent of 70,000 jewels was due tomorrow, and she had currently saved up a mere 20,000 jewels for the purpose of paying rent. That was certainly not a sufficient amount of money for her to keep living in her cute apartment, and spending money to buy Natsu gifts had also been quite a bad idea. After all, he wasn't exactly a faithful boyfriend.

However, earning 50,000 or more from one job was easier said than done for one person. Jobs that offered high amounts of money were usually S-Class jobs or possibly A-Class jobs with the risk of severe danger, and they normally required the captures or death of outlaws in Fiore because those people had committed heinous crimes. Some outlaws had high bounties on their heads for running illegal guilds or street gangs that loved to beat up people, but some outlaws were merely just thieves who were really good at stealing money or expensive artifacts. Either way, they were people who had to be brought down by mages from legal guilds.

Lucy took a moment to think about asking Gray or Erza for help with whatever job that she had to do, but they would probably just shrug off her request because they wanted to spend time around the cute Lisanna. She did have that habit of using her cute smile and beautiful blue eyes in unison with a pink blush of happiness that would appear on her cheeks to make her friends be happy to be around her, and it had always worked. It worked very well, especially on Natsu, and that made Lucy give up on the idea of asking Team Natsu for help. Besides, weren't they supposed to win a trip to a resort or something?

Deciding that this job would have to be done on her own, as everyone else would probably be busy or think she was crazy to ask them for help with capturing a vicious outlaw, Lucy narrowed her cocoa brown eyes while starting to look determined about taking on this task. She clenched her fists tightly while her eyes began to switch to a more confident look, and a smile formed on her face. She was not going to be weak on this job or struggle at it, even if she could only use her Celestial Spirits, and Lucy was about to walk out the door before the sound of her waffles popping up out of the toaster had reached her ears.

She looked a bit embarrassed to have almost forgotten about the delicious waffles that she had made for breakfast, and Lucy quickly went back to the kitchen to unplug the toaster. She used a silver fork to stab the waffles, before using the fork to pull them up out of the toaster that was cooling down, and Lucy put all the waffles down on to the kitchen counter. She proceeded to pick them up with her left hand, and Lucy put one of the waffles in her mouth while she was running towards the front door. She had picked up her ten Celestial Spirit Keys from the brown coffee table on her way out, and Lucy did not even care that she was still in her pink pajamas.

* * *

 **55 minutes later, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Arriving at her usual time of 8:10 a.m., after eating her waffles, Lucy opened the guild's entrance doors to see that Team Natsu looked like they were ready for that trip to the resort. Gray wasn't wearing a shirt, which made Juvia stare at him with a happy pink blush on her face while she also wanted to come along, and Erza wore a black bikini that showed off the sexy curves of her body. Natsu had been shirtless while wearing only his red shorts, as he seemed to be quite excited to have fun at a luxurious resort, and his girlfriend Lisanna was wearing a pink bikini that showed off most of her cleavage while it made her curves look quite sexy.

Lucy tried her best to ignore her former teammates while she made her way to the request board, as she needed to find a good job that could greatly help her pay the rent for this month, and she let her mind focus on which job would be great for her to take. There were many flyers on the request board, some of them having jobs that involved gardening, and there were other flyers on the board for jobs that required treasures to be found. The jobs that involved capturing or killing outlaws were also on the request board, and some of the bounties on certain people's heads were quite high.

There was a flyer featuring a purple-haired mage who had defected from a guild because he couldn't do any illegal things, and he used Darkness Magic. That type of magic was said to be really destructive, even when it wasn't enhanced, and Lucy did not want to risk getting killed for 450,000 jewels. She spotted another flyer that requested the death of a black-haired woman who had killed many people with Water Magic and Ice Magic for the sake of stealing many vast amounts of great treasure, and she was an S-Class criminal. Even with the strength of Aquarius, Lucy would not risk her life for 780,000 jewels.

Her eyes suddenly caught sight of a flyer with a picture of a green-haired woman on it, and Lucy began to read the flyer to herself. This job involved the capture of a woman named Melissa Venteux, a former mage of a legal guild known as Ivy Kinoyama, and Melissa had a bounty of 300,000 on her head because of the fact that she was said to only destroy whoever got on her nerves. Melissa had been rumored to be seen in the town of Eterna while she had let someone with a big mouth in on the fact that she lived in the Old Chateau that had been at the northern part of the forest that stood quite close to the town, so tracking her down would be quite easy.

Lucy could only smile at the fact that this job was perfect for her to handle, as the flyer itself said that Melissa lived in an Old Chateau, and it wasn't going to be done in some deadly volcano or harsh temple in a desert. Lucy also knew that Aquarius and Loke were strong enough to handle tough opponents, so there would be no need for her to worry. As she unpinned the flyer and took it off of the request board, Lucy turned around quickly to see Natsu right in front of her. He was not sitting at the table with everyone else, and Lucy could see Lisanna smiling at Natsu while the fire dragon slayer had a happy grin on his face. Really, did he seriously think she was still fooled?

"Hey, Luce! Listen, me and the others are going to have fun at a resort. In case any trouble comes up, we have to kick you off of the team now. You're just weak, and I always have to end up saving you. You're a burden." Natsu told her with his happy grin, thinking that she hadn't eavesdropped on him yesterday.

Lisanna added while she walked over to Natsu, before gently kissing his cheek and pressing her body against his, "We hope you're okay with me taking your spot on the team, Lucy. I think our team will be good on jobs as well, since Natsu and I work well together."

Lucy tried her best to not react, as Natsu and his white-haired girlfriend were probably trying to rile her up, and she clenched her fists tightly. She was trying her best not to cry, as Natsu proceeded to let his left hand gently caress Lisanna's rear, and Lucy knew that her ex-boyfriend never did that to her when they had dated for 13 months. She noticed that Natsu and Lisanna even had large sundaes on the table, and she could hear the blue-eyed girl whisper about how Natsu was never cheap with her. Wow, and yet he had never really bought much stuff for Lucy? At least he knew how to treat a woman right, but it seemed like that only mattered when he had been cheating.

She even saw Natsu press his lips against Lisanna's to show the great love in their relationship, and Lucy could only close her eyes in frustration while feeling like Natsu had stomped on her heart once again. Lucy was not someone who had really learned how to harden her emotions or be cold enough to do things without feeling anything at all, and she really did not want to start crying in front of everyone. She was in shock right now while she had trembled from now seeing Lisanna put her tongue in Natsu's mouth while his hands were starting to rub her back, and Lucy just couldn't handle seeing how Natsu and Lisanna were in love.

The blonde-haired girl attempted to avert her eyes to another part of the guild while Natsu accidentally fell on top of Lisanna, and she asked Erza about the situation. The scarlet-haired mage told her friend that she hit Natsu on the head for accidentally blurting out his intentions earlier, but she did think about the fact that Lucy was not as strong as Lisanna. The white-haired girl's claws in her Tigress Take-Over could slice through hard metal with ease, as Lisanna had been training quite a lot for the sake of impressing Natsu, and Erza thought that Lucy was just not on par with Lisanna.

With three responses that were against having her on the team, Lucy let out a saddened sigh and simply walked out of the guild with the flyer that she had gotten off of the request board. She chose not to ask Gray for his opinion, as he was too busy being surprised by Juvia saying she wanted to marry him soon, and even the blue-haired woman may have thought that Lucy was weak. Lucy could now officially confirm that she wasn't suited to be on Team Natsu, and her blonde hair covered her brown eyes while she simply ran all the way to the town of Eterna to handle the job she had picked out. Getting two-hundred thousand jewels could probably make anyone feel better, right?

* * *

 **20 minutes later...**

The forest of Eterna had not been quite far from Magnolia, as some people would go out of the Fairy Tail guild to collect some honey from golden-colored trees that were slathered with it, and some people from Magnolia would end up running back to town quite quickly because the bees were quite possessive of their honey. Even Natsu's Fire Dragon's Roar would be dangerous to use against the bees, since some mages wielding Honey Magic would put explosive paper on the trees, and the honey trees would explode in large gushes of honey. Even if the bees would get stuck in it, flames or explosions could certainly cause a great amount of damage to the forest.

Lucy had cut through the nearby city of Eterna to reach the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest, seeing it to be an abandoned manor house that had fallen into a state of disrepair, and she could only stand still in a state of nervousness while her bare feet gently touched the green grass. The brown-eyed mage was quite surprised to see that the house had four broken front windows, the glass nowhere in sight, and that helped Lucy see that the damage was not recent. This place had most likely been abandoned for a few years, so it didn't seem like there would be any wild gangs inside the chateau.

She pulled out the Celestial Spirit Keys of Aquarius and Loke from the left pocket of her pink pajama pants, since they would probably be the most useful spirits to summon in this situation, and Lucy walked towards the Old Chateau while trying to put a brave look on her face. She was off of Team Natsu now, so why would Erza or Gray even want to help her out on this mission? It's not like she would need their help to take out an enemy that only got irritated by people who got on her nerves, so what would Lucy even have to worry about? This job was possibly going to be quite easy, based on how the amount of reward money made the job seem to be at a low difficulty.

Lucy kept walking towards the chateau's brown wooden entrance doors, preparing to open the old-looking doors that seemed to squeak from the slightest breeze of wind, and she prepared to simply knock. However, she was surprised to see the doors quickly open up to let an abnormal gust of wind pull her into the chateau! Lucy was caught off guard by this, before being thrown into a creepy-looking foyer that had large broken paintings on the second floor, and the wooden floor creaked quite loudly when she landed on it. She quickly got up to try and leave, but a gust of wind appeared above her head to slam the brown doors shut.

This was obviously not natural, as wind couldn't suddenly appear from two different directions to open and close a door, but Lucy slowly stood up to see that the wind obviously belonged to someone. She saw a woman walk through the dark doorway of what appeared to be a dark dining room behind her, and this woman had short green hair with fringes framing her face. Her skin was fair, and her eyes were emerald green. She wore a simple green shirt with a black miniskirt, and this woman wore some dark green flat shoes as well. She looked straight at Lucy, before smirking a bit, and she began to giggle.

"Well, hello! _Bonjour, stupide magicien!_ I am Melissa Venteux, a high-level criminal who loves to use the Wind Magic at great levels, and I must assume that you are the one who has come to stop me. You must be warned, _fille mignonne._ I am quite strong, and I can blow you away. _Enfin,_ I can now show off new techniques!" Melissa told Lucy in quite a delighted tone while speaking in a lovely French accent.

Lucy replied in a confident tone while pulling out two of her Celestial Spirit Keys, her brown eyes starting to be filled with determination, "I don't understand some of the things you said, but I'm here to stop you from hurting anyone! After all, the flyer says you defected from Ivy Kinoyama! Prepare to lose!"

Lucy opened the Gate of the Lion, which summoned Loke, and the orange-haired man appeared in front of Lucy while he wore his fancy black suit with black pants to match. He wore some dark shoes as well, and the man wearing glasses happily smiled at Lucy while winking at her in a flirty manner. Lucy was not exactly liking his flirting, and she confidently told him to start off the Regulus Impact spell that was affiliated with his Regulus Magic. Loke smiled at this idea, before glaring at Melissa with the intent to defeat her in one hit, and he proceeded to use the Regulus Impact attack.

Loke adjusted his glasses, before creating a large lion's head out of golden light that had engulfed his hand, and he sent it straight towards Melissa. She scoffed a bit, before simply exhaling a gust of wind that headed straight for Loke's attack, and the two spells collided quickly to make an average-sized smokescreen appear in midair. They created a weak gale of wind, before the smoke quickly cleared up, and the green-haired antagonist decided to strike Lucy with some moves that weren't going to be easy to analyze. In fact, Lucy had no idea about what would come next.

Melissa put her hands together, before using a spell known as Windy Reign, and this move caused three mint green rings of wind to float in front of her in midair. She exhaled air to blow them all straight towards Lucy, but Loke was quick enough to try and punch two of the rings away from their intended target. While it was a good move, however, punching those wind rings resulted in two large mint green blasts of Wind Magic surrounding Loke! The orange-haired man screamed in pain from this attack, as he could feel that its power level was higher than what it normally should've been, and Melissa was no ordinary mage. The last ring ended up striking Lucy in a large green blast of Wind Magic, and she screamed in pain from how it really hurt.

She quickly followed up with a spell known as Garu Elwind, and this spell allowed Melissa to shoot out a mint green arrow of wind from her mouth. It began to spin at high speeds while it flew through the air, purposely dodging Loke for the sake of gaining more momentum, and it did this five more times before it struck him right in the stomach! A large mint green blast of energy transpired around Loke, causing him to scream in pain once more, and Lucy could only look stunned from how Melissa evilly told her that she had been using magic from green tomes that had been enhanced in power by a man who worked in an armory. (Nice reference to _Fire Emblem_ , huh?)

Loke groaned in pain from the arrow that had struck him, as it had spun its way into his stomach to create a serious injury, and the man wearing the fancy black suit could only give Lucy an apologetic look while he was sent back to the Celestial Spirit World. Lucy could only start to shake in fear, her shoulders shivering while Melissa's emerald green eyes were filled with an intent to kill, and the blonde-haired mage decided to try running up the stairs to the chateau's second floor to figure out some kind of strategy for taking Melissa down. Having some time to think would be helpful, after all.

Before Lucy could reach the top of the left staircase, however, Melissa appeared in front of her with a disappointed look on her face. She was hoping that Lucy would be more of a challenge, but that as not the case. Melissa decided to use a new move known as Aerial Drill Kick, and this spell simply caused two mint green drills to engulf her feet. They were made out of wind, and Melissa simply kicked Lucy in the chin with her left foot while sending her high up into the air! The drill that surrounded her left foot had now left her foot, before it headed straight towards Lucy, and a huge mint green blast of wind energy transpired when it hit the Celestial Spirit Wizard in her abdomen!

She could be heard screaming in intense pain, as this attack seemed to be at a higher power level than Melissa's attacks in the Elwind stage, and Lucy could only groan in frustration while remembering how Erza once spoke of how there were higher levels beyond regular types of magic. She never thought that she'd experience it firsthand, though, and the bounty on that flyer was way too low for someone like Melissa. The Wind Magic that she recently switched to was most likely Arcwind, which was two stages higher than standard Wind Magic, and this was bad news for Lucy.

To make matters worse, Melissa kept moving at high speeds. As Lucy fell to the ground, she looked a bit worried while she attempted to summon a Celestial Spirit to aid her in this battle. She could hear Melissa dashing around at rapid speeds to confound her foe, and Lucy coughed up some blood when she had hit the ground hard. She could feel some of her bones crack from hitting the wooden floor so hard, and she struggled to stand up because of how she was in so much pain. Lucy tried to stand up, only to be horrified from seeing Melissa quickly appear in front of her to deliver a wind-infused punch to her stomach.

Lucy was sent flying backwards, landing next to the right side of the doorway to the chateau's dining room, and she found it very difficult to move. She was not weak, but Melissa was far too strong. The green-haired girl was also too fast, and Lucy did not have the stamina to run at extremely high speeds. To put it simply, she was dealing with a foe who was way out of her league. Lucy could only feign unconsciousness while Melissa walked towards her, falling forward while pretending to be dead, and she had hoped this tough fight would not end in her death. After all, a merciless person like Melissa had to be an A-Class outlaw.

The woman with emerald green eyes told Lucy in a calm tone while standing over her, taking notice of the pink guild mark on the blonde-haired girl's right hand, "Well, it looks like my plan of sending Fairy Tail a fake flyer with fake info on me has worked. Poor little girl. It must really suck to be such a weakling, and I only have Elwind-level and Arcwind-level spells of Wind Magic at my disposal. The higher levels would've instantly killed you and your little spirits, but at least you're dead now. Now, no one can stop me from becoming a rebellious mage who is _très magnifique!"_

Before Melissa could really even celebrate this one victory as her possible stepping stone to greatness, the brown front doors of the Old Chateau were kicked down by a certain blond-haired male with spiky hair. He stood next to a male who had messy black hair, and these two mages had stern looks on their faces while they had caused a large amount of daylight to enter the chateau. Melissa had no idea who these people even were, as she widened her emerald green eyes in shock, but Lucy opened her eyes to see two people who she recognized. She could only let her lips form a happy smile on her face, before she passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 2? Did you like it? Just for the record, I made Lucy only use one Celestial Spirit to show how she'll rise from being weak to being strong. Also, some characters in this story will stay because of their praise from many people who messaged me about the story. It may seem like nothing has changed, but the next few chapters will have some rewrites. Some story lines may even be fully rewritten. Anyway, standby for the update!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **New Job & Old Chateau, Part 2**

* * *

Melissa looked quite shocked to see the doors of the Old Chateau get kicked down, almost like someone was trying to get on her nerves by intruding today, and the woman with green hair let out a somewhat annoyed sigh at how someone else was wanting to battle her. She was about to kill Lucy in their fight, as she turned around for a moment to see that the blonde-haired mage had passed out from exhaustion, but it looked like Melissa would have to finish off the Celestial Spirit Wizard after handling the guests who rudely barged in to see a matter that did not concern them.

The first uninvited guest was Sting Eucliffe, the guild master of Sabertooth, and he was a user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic. The confident male had beautiful blue eyes that could make any woman be charmed by their twinkle, and Sting also loved to wear his signature cream-colored shirt that went well with the blue vest that he liked to wear. Sting also wore cream-colored pants that looked similar to Natsu's, and he also wore some black suspenders that matched the black boots on his feet. The soles of his boots had yellow rectangular protrusions pointing upwards on their front portion, resembling square fangs, and the blue-eyed male was quite fashionable.

The other uninvited guest was Rogue Cheney, the shadow dragon slayer of Sabertooth, and he wore a long black cape with golden edges. Rogue wore a plain gray shirt with brown cuffs, along with a brown cloth waist-guard, and his waist-guard consisted of four long pieces of cloth that reached below his knees. Each piece of brown cloth was adorned by a large dark red cross with fan-shaped arms. Below his waist-guard, Rogue wore a pair of armored boots that went well with the plain gray shirt he wore. Rogue was just as fashionable as Sting, and both of the dragon slayers were ready to fight.

Melissa could only smirk at them while wondering if they really wanted to take her on, and she began to wonder why they would just show up at the chateau where she had been living. Even though she hadn't fixed up the place to where it looked great, Melissa could care less. She was going to take down the two dragon slayers who showed up at the Old Chateau, and the user of Elwind-level and Arcwind-level Wind Magic was ready to blow away these two mages with a few of her moves. She probably wouldn't have to viciously abuse them like how she had done to Lucy, but she'd still maintain a high level of mercilessness. After all, weren't the best criminals naturally ruthless?

Upon looking straight at the woman who began muttering confident words about this situation to herself in her lovely French accent, Sting looked a bit stern from recognizing her face in a newspaper that featured criminals. She was Melissa Venteux, a mage who had defected from the legal guild known as Ivy Kinoyama, and she had destroyed people who annoyed her. In fact, some people who barely survived had talked about getting hurt by what seemed like explosive winds. On top of that, Melissa also used her Wind Magic to make gusts of air steal things from stores in the town of Eterna. Wow, wasn't she a real merciless thief?

Sting told her in a calm tone while somewhat narrowing his blue eyes, "Wow. Rogue and I were trying to help Yukino with getting some honey, and the bees suddenly get startled by explosions coming from this manor. For a high-class criminal, you really suck at being silent."

Melissa responded in a gleeful tone with a sadistic facial expression while a vicious sense of delight entered her emerald green eyes, " _La bonté!_ You have heard of me, _oui?_ I did not think my spells made that much sound, but it looks like you halted my plan to get rid of this _faible petite fille_ who entered the chateau earlier. Share her fate, _s'il vous plait._ "

The green-haired villain wasted no time with using the spell known as Windy Reign, and this move caused three mint green rings of wind to float in front of her in midair. She exhaled air to blow them all straight towards Sting, but Rogue intercepted the attack by diving below the rings to use his Shadow Dragon's Roar from underneath them. The black vortex of shadowy energy sent the rings up into the air, getting them a few feet below the chateau's ceiling, and Melissa's projectiles proceeded to explode in large green blasts of Wind Magic! They released air pressure that went straight down towards Melissa, but she quickly evaded the attack to let the wooden floor get smashed in.

Sting saw his opponent do a few flips into the air, smiling confidently while knowing that even users of Wind Magic could not easily change direction in midair, and the blond-haired dragon slayer leaped into the air to hit Melissa's left ankle with his palm that had been surrounded by white holy light. At first, it just seemed to be an ordinary palm slam. However, Sting quickly fell backwards when Melissa was surrounded by a white explosion of light! She could be heard letting out a scream of sheer pain from this attack, since it did have lots of power, and this spell had been known as White Dragon's Holy Blast Palm.

The intense white light had created shadows, which were perfect for a new move that Rogue was going to use, and he calmly aimed both of his hands towards the falling antagonist. Rogue activated a move known as Shadow Dragon's Bind, and this spell simply made four shadows be created by the light. They headed straight towards Melissa for the sake of surrounding her, before trapping her in a black dome of shadows, and the user of high-level Wind Magic tried to use a spell known as Wind Hand, and this move was a part of Arcwind-level Wind Magic.

Melissa exhaled a breath of air that turned into a large mint green hand that had long nails for it to look quite feminine, and the hand slammed itself into a side of the shadowy dome to make a huge mint green blast of energy transpire! The blast quickly made a gust of wind propel Melissa out of Rogue's dome, and the shadow dragon slayer's spell faded away. He stood next to Sting while seeing that Melissa panted from using an Arcwind-level spell of Wind Magic, but that was the second one she used today. She was also bruised up from Sting's attack, but her injuries were not dangerous like how Lucy's were.

Sting used his White Dragon's Roar to try and finish off Melissa with a simple move that was powerful, but the woman with emerald green eyes simply dodged to her left while a trolling look appeared on her face. She gave Sting a look that told him about how her high speed enabled her to dodge almost any attack when she wasn't caught off guard, and there was no way to really defeat a mage who could move quite fast. Sting knew that he had to figure out some way to stop this windy woman, but what could be done? She had good experience with the speed and power of her own attacks, so dodging anything slower or countering anything weaker was not an issue for her.

Melissa asked her new enemies in a calm tone, before she started to giggle, " _Bien triste!_ You have only landed one attack on me, but I can still stand. No matter how many times you hit me, it is nothing compared to my high-level Wind Magic that is _gracieux!_ Perhaps my strongest move will show you my power that is marvelous!"

Sting replied to her in a confident tone while he had a stern look in his blue eyes, as he could see Lucy behind Melissa, "It really doesn't matter if you do anything big, lady. You already lost some of your magical power in that battle with that chick who's out of it right now, so even your strongest move will be a little weakened."

Melissa could only scoff at Sting for underestimating her abilities, and she was planning to end this battle quite quickly because of the fact that she still had to kill Lucy. After all, this was technically an interruption in their battle. Despite the fact that Lucy was passed out and not even able to stand up, Melissa still wanted her foe to be dead. She had never imagined the day where someone would intrude into the chateau for the purpose of trying to take her down, but she supposed that it would've had to happen eventually. It's not like she'd be going down without a fight, though.

She decided to use a move known as Fearless Wind Bird, and this move caused a mint green aura to engulf Melissa's body. The green-haired antagonist jumped up high into the air, before spinning like a drill at rapid speeds, and she came down to the ground while continuing to spin. Her high amount of wind was blowing in a large circle around the power, even lifting Lucy up into the air, and Melissa's drill form even made some fierce tears into Lucy's pink pajamas while she purposely slammed against the blonde-haired girl's stomach for the sake of crashing through a nearby wall with her.

As Melissa spun quite fast while taking Lucy with her on what would possibly be a one-way trip to the afterlife, she was suddenly repelled by a small white ball of light that gently struck her. That was known as White Dragon's Energy Blitz, and that move simply involved Sting shooting a small white ball of light from his mouth to increase the power and stamina of their moves. While it seemed like a bad move to use on enemies, this move caused Melissa to have too much power in her drilling strike against Lucy. Using more energy and power than necessary caused her to be pushed away by her own extreme force, and she fell to the ground to get immense recoil damage.

The green-haired antagonist could only scream in extreme pain, as what happened next was a huge mint green blast of wind energy that obliterated the entire foyer of the Old Chateau, and Rogue was quick to leap away. Sting, however, had quickly activated his White Drive to grab Lucy before the blast had occurred. Its force may have sent them flying out of the chateau, but at least they were safe. That last move of Melissa's was in the Arcwind-level section of Wind Magic, even if the spell did not come from a green tome that had been forged by an armorer, and that level of Wind Magic was pretty strong.

The staircases to the upper floor of the chateau had also been destroyed, along with the whole front part of the chateau, and the rest of it came down with a massive crash that made several birds fly out of the forest's trees in a panicked manner. Sting's red Exceed named Lector quickly flew towards the area where the chateau stood while he carried Rogue's green Exceed named Frosch, who looked quite carefree, and the sudden crash in the forest could tell anyone nearby that the explosions from earlier were all related to it. A hazel-eyed girl named Yukino Aguria also came running with a jar of honey in her hands, and the girl with light blue hair was relieved to see that her friends were okay.

Melissa struggled to stand up from the debris while she had been severely hurt by the collapse of the chateau, and she told the unconscious Lucy Heartfilia in a deriding tone while smirking, "What a pity. It looks like the battle had to be finished by other mages, _petite fille,_ and Fairy Tail has made you be dispensable. What a pathetic waste of a mage you are. I always had the chance to kill you, but I only chose not to be laughed at for an easy feat. If you are going to die, then you are remembered as trash."

Rogue was about to finish off the green-haired antagonist, but she had giggled some unclear words in her lovely French accent while using the last bit of her Wind Magic to vanish in a mint green tornado of wind that surrounded her for a few moments. After fifteen seconds, the mages from Sabertooth saw Melissa's tornado vanish while she appeared to leave a large brown bag of money behind to shut them up. She had unknowingly used the wind to make clones of herself for people to defeat, and then she'd defeat the mages who got the big rewards. Even though Lucy fought the real deal, Melissa now had to disappear to a new place where she could hide.

* * *

 **One hour later...**

Lucy slowly opened her cocoa brown eyes to find herself laying on green grass while she had been under the shade of a golden-colored honey tree that had its beehive destroyed by Sting, and she slowly let her eyes shift to the right to see that a certain male with blond hair had been watching over her while Rogue was helping Yukino put five jars of honey into her purse. She was going to make tons of chewy cookies with the honey, as those tasted really well to kids and adults alike, but Lucy did not really care about what Yukino was going to do. Right now, she just wanted to sit up and look at her surroundings.

She turned her head to the left to see that Sting was leaning against a tree with green leaves, and Lucy let out a soft yawn while waking up. She had not seen any part of what happened while she had passed out, only remembering that she saw Sting and Rogue barge into the chateau, and they probably got rid of Melissa. Perhaps their fight against her was not too hard, as they were stronger than Lucy, but the blonde-haired girl couldn't find herself to form a smile on her face. Just because Melissa lost to Sting and Rogue, Lucy knew that she had been completely overpowered by the user of Wind Magic.

Loke was not able to withstand the power of Melissa's wind attacks, and Lucy even thought about how Virgo or Taurus could've also ended up defeated in that bad situation. She clenched her fists tightly while closing her eyes, her painful wounds letting her know how she got so badly hurt on a job that involved the capture of an A-Class criminal, and Lucy felt so bad about how she took on such a dangerous job for some rent money. She really started to doubt her abilities as a mage, thinking that she was weak like how Natsu and Lisanna had perceived her to be, and Lucy just couldn't stand it.

Lucy slowly stood up while thinking about how Erza wanted her to get stronger, and she could only shudder in sadness while tears welled up in her eyes. She felt like a total fool, taking on a job where she almost lost her life, and Lucy did not even know that Melissa created that fake flyer for her own sadistic enjoyment. Worst of all, it was so humiliating for her to be tossed around so easily by a criminal. Had Sting and Rogue been too late, Lucy would've been dead. She felt totally ashamed while having emotions that were shifting between frustration and sadness, and she didn't even know that Sting was watching her express these feelings.

She really felt like crying while it seemed like this was her most shameful loss ever, as she didn't even score one hit against Melissa, and Lucy couldn't help but let her tears come out. She felt as if Natsu was right to say that she was weak, and it seemed like she deserved to be replaced by Lisanna. Lucy couldn't even be good enough to stop her own boyfriend from cheating on her, and this loss against Melissa made her feel like she wasn't good enough for anyone. She couldn't show Team Natsu that she could be strong, and she also hated how she was weak in front of Melissa. As Lucy kept crying and accidentally tripped while trying to run away, Sting looked a bit concerned.

"Whoa, be careful! It's not exactly good to run while you can't clearly see, Blondie. Also, don't push yourself too hard with those injuries." Sting told the brown-eyed girl with a worried look on his face, as he remembered how Yukino bandaged up Lucy and had fed her Oran Berries while she had been unconscious.

Lucy replied while struggling to stand up, before getting back on her feet with her legs trembling slightly, "My name is Lucy Heartfilia, and don't call me Blondie! You're blond, too. It's not my fault that I had to handle a job alone to pay my rent, after Natsu kicked me off of the team and cheated on me like such a jerk! He's such a.."

Before Lucy could even finish that sentence, she hugged Sting and sobbed softly. Her tears got his shirt a bit wet, which somewhat annoyed the blue-eyed male, and Sting didn't exactly know how to comfort a woman. Rogue was a better expert at that, but him and Yukino had walked off to the entrance of Eterna Forest with Frosch and Lector. With that being said, however, Sting did understand Lucy's situation. She simply wanted to take care of her rent while wanting to prove something to people who didn't care for her, and she nearly got a windy death in her battle with Melissa.

The main issue here, though, was that Lucy had been cheated on by Natsu. She had turned around to hug Sting while really needing someone to support her, and Lucy even told her new friend about how she bought Natsu many gifts while he had been spending cash on Lisanna. He cared more for his new girlfriend while not even caring much for Lucy, and the fire dragon slayer even wanted to take his team to a resort for a vacation. They'd have to win the contest, though, but Natsu hyped up his love and friendship for the white-haired mage to a point where many people ignored Lucy and kept secrets from her while they enjoyed being around Lisanna.

Lucy's blonde hair covered her crying brown eyes while she also let Sting know that she was loyal to Natsu, always having so much love for him, and she told Sting that it was an idiotic move for her to not say anything when she had first started smelling unusual scents of perfume on Natsu's clothes. She had even looked through a glass window one day to see them drinking lattes together at a coffee shop, and they seemed to be chatting happily. Lucy let out a breath of sadness while breaking the hug with Sting, and her heart was really broken. She had heard about Natsu's affair yesterday, before getting officially kicked off the team today, and she also had a humiliating loss in a fight.

Sting could see that Lucy was in a lot of emotional pain while she was also in physical pain from the battle with Melissa, and he knew that he had to find something to say about her issues. Leaving her alone in such a heartbroken state could cause Lucy to take another job for the sake of proving herself to Natsu, and Sting knew that would be a bad idea. Besides, Rogue and Yukino had given him tips on relationships. If the person did not seem to be worth the effort, then why bother trying to be with them? Plus, he had cheated on her. Trying to do anything for someone disloyal would be a waste of time, and Lucy would only be hurting herself more instead of saving her relationship.

Saying that she needed to move on would be a bit rude, as this breakup did recently happen yesterday, and Sting knew that he would have to be gentle with a girl who was feeling emotional. He could tell that Lucy was seeing this heartbreak as a huge loss, since she had loved the fire dragon slayer so much, so Sting just simply had to flip that around into something that was quite positive. It might not be something that would sway Lucy easily, but it would be something for her to think about. After all, replacing bad thoughts with good ones could normally make people perceive something in a different light.

Sting told Lucy in a calm tone while looking into her brown eyes, before folding his arms and smiling a bit, "When you really think about it, you really shouldn't be fretting. After all, no one really needs to try impressing someone who will just cheat on them. You should think about what to do for yourself, instead of wanting to be with a guy who isn't good enough for you."

Lucy replied while seeing Sting walk towards her, smiling a bit while he wiped her tears away, "I guess you're right. Maybe I should just start focusing on how to make myself be happy, instead of trying to make Natsu have love for me. If he loves Lisanna, there's nothing I can do. Maybe I'll learn to get over that, but this recent loss makes me feel useless."

She was about to frown again, but Sting kindly told her that she was far from useless because of how she was pretty brave to take on an A-Class criminal like Melissa. Even though she got away, Lucy did technically make her foe be in a fight that made her end up leaving the area. Now, Melissa would probably not terrorize mages passing through the city of Eterna with her wind clones for the sake of collecting cash. She'd most likely be going elsewhere to send fake jobs to the guild near her next hideout, so the mages in that part of Fiore could deal with her.

As Lucy prepared to leave the forest, even though she'd still have to wait for her injuries to fully heal, she smiled at Sting once again for how he tried to cheer up because of how she felt depressed. She was glad that someone cared about her problems, and Sting had been a good listener. Upon seeing the brown bag of money near a tree, Lucy smiled slightly while asking Sting if he wanted any money for saving her. He simply shook his head in a calm manner of refusal, as he already had tons of money saved up from other jobs, and Sting gave Lucy a confident smile while also giving her the thumbs-up gesture to let her know that things would get better.

"Since you saved my life from Melissa, may I please have your full name?" Lucy asked Sting with a smile on her face, as she felt the bandages around her hands, arms, stomach, and ankles.

Sting responded to Lucy in a confident manner, "It's Sting Eucliffe, the name of Fiore's best dragon slayer. You're Lucy Heartfilia, right? Your name is pretty, but mine is super cool. Remember that I'm the guild master of Sabertooth, and I'm the best mage there."

Lucy giggled while asking Sting if he was a bit too cocky, but the blond-haired male told her that it was good to be confident about things that were true. As Lucy proceeded to walk away from Sting, dragging the bag of 500,000 jewels behind her, she couldn't help but smile at how he put some positive energy into her day. She started to let her thoughts drift to how he saved her from being killed by Melissa, and that fight made Lucy clench her fists with the realization that high-level criminals could come her way at anytime. If Sting and Rogue were not around, she'd have to be strong enough to handle the task. With some positive thoughts and good desires starting to fill her mind, Lucy proceeded to head out of the forest to reach Eterna Town. She would buy a train ticket to get back to Magnolia, and let's just say that Lucy was about to check out a certain library.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 3? Did you like it? If these chapters don't seem interesting, then don't worry. I can assure you that the next chapter will be a real good start to how I changed the story. Standby, and review for faster updates!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **Inspiring Green Breeze, and Startling Blue Beauty**

* * *

The train ride from Eterna Town to Magnolia Town had only lasted 25 minutes, as the train had no trouble with reaching a town that had been close by, and Lucy had gotten off of the train when it came to a halt at the Magnolia station. She still wore her pink pajamas that had tears from Melissa's brutal winds, meaning that she didn't buy any new clothes in Eterna before she boarded the train, but Lucy had stopped by a small dessert shop in that town to purchase a brown box that was filled with ten delicious candy bars. They only cost 100 jewels per candy bar, but the sweet chocolate bars were still quite delicious.

Lucy had carried the brown box in her right hand while she was using her left hand to hold the bag of 500,000 jewels that Melissa had left behind. Even though it was a bunch of cash that the green-haired woman had stolen from people who gave out rewards for her supposed "captures", Lucy knew that she could use this money to pay off her monthly rent of 70,000 jewels. She did need a place to live, after all, but Lucy did feel somewhat conflicted. It's not like she hated her apartment, as the blonde-haired mage was glad to have a good morning where Natsu didn't break into her home, but she just didn't like how it was near Fairy Tail.

Sting had not wanted her to not think about Natsu anymore, as the blue-eyed male thought that the fire dragon slayer was not really worth Lucy's time, and her cocoa brown eyes had a slight bit of sadness in them. Even if she showed her injuries to Natsu, he really would not care. That guy was too busy loving Lisanna and her cute features, so Lucy was a person that he'd simply ignore. As Lucy walked to her apartment, she kept thinking about how it was necessary for her to change herself into someone who was stronger. She would probably have to work harder and learn more skills, but that was part of her road to improving herself.

Lucy kept walking while also thinking about the fact that Melissa beat her in their fight with ease, as it made the brown-eyed girl close her eyes while she groaned in frustration, and she did realize that many evil criminals were in Fiore. They would possibly be quite strong, so Lucy would definitely have to get stronger as well. After all, she could've died if Sting and Rogue hadn't showed up to the Old Chateau for the sake of checking out who was making the blasts that disturbed the Eterna Forest. Getting stronger would probably also make Lucy feel much happier, and being happy would also help Lucy have more of a positive outlook on life.

The Celestial Spirit Wizard arrived at her apartment, before setting the brown box of candy bars down on the ground in front of her, and she pulled out her apartment key from the right pocket of her pink pajama pants. She wasn't injured to the point where she couldn't turn the key in the lock to open the door, so Lucy successfully got into her apartment and set the large bag of jewels down on the ground. She quickly turned back around to pick up the brown box of chocolate bars, and Lucy frowned a bit while closing the front doors to her apartment. She also locked them, before going to sit on the couch in her living room, and she needed some time to think.

 _"It's been a pretty dangerous morning for me, and it's also been very emotional. Melissa even berated me by pointing out how I fell for that fake flyer in Fairy Tail, and it was all so embarrassing. I nearly cried when Natsu kicked me off of the team, and I nearly lost it when he was kissing Lisanna. This morning was just rough, and I feel pushed to the edge..."_ Lucy thought to herself while letting out a sad sigh, starting to look deep in thought about what she had to do.

Lucy realized that staying around Natsu would just make her feel more depressed, which would not be good for her at all, and being ignored by many people in the Fairy Tail guild would also be quite bad. She didn't want a major amount of spotlight to always be on her, but any normal person would want a decent amount of attention. The fact that people didn't tell her certain things was also something that made her feel like an outcast, such as how Cana let it slip that Natsu and Lisanna were trying to win a contest for the chance to spend time at a luxurious resort, and Lucy hated being left in the dark.

No one had even told her about the fact that Natsu had been cheating on her with Lisanna, but Lucy knew that she would have to try and move on. She was a bit conflicted with how her mind had the will to try moving on, but her heart still needed more time. After all, Natsu did just shatter his relationship with Lucy like it was nothing. A breakup would be hard to get over, but Lucy could ease the pain of it by not thinking about it. She laid on the couch while wondering if any guy would even like her or be loyal to her, and she really hated the fact that she didn't even do anything really bad to cause the breakup.

Just because Lisanna had been quite pretty with a very nice personality, Natsu wasn't exactly in an ethically right position to cheat on Lucy for the sake of being with the white-haired mage. Lucy knew that complaining about it to him would do nothing, and crying about her heartbreak would also do nothing. She closed her eyes for a moment while thinking about Sting's advice that he had given her, and Lucy knew that advice was right. She knew that Sting was smart when he said that she shouldn't be fretting over Natsu, since the fire dragon slayer wasn't her only way for her to feel happiness in her life, and she had to focus on doing what was right for herself.

Lucy knew that Sting was right, and she was starting to get a little frustrated at the thought of trying to get Natsu back. Swaying back and forth between two opposite ways to find happiness had made the blonde-haired mage really not stand the indecision, but she knew one thing. Trying to get Natsu back and begging for his love would just show him and Lisanna that they had the power to keep putting emotions of sadness and jealously into her heart, and Lucy didn't want that to happen. She started figuring out a way to get stronger, as it involved an earlier thought that entered her head again, and let's just say that she'd use a fierce criminal like Melissa as her inspiration for what she was going to do.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Juvia had been sitting at a table with Team Natsu while she sat next to Gray, admiring his cool black hair that went well with his handsome dark blue eyes, and the Rain Woman blushed happily while Gray talked about the fact that they needed to find a great job to handle today. She also smiled at how the ice mage warned Natsu to not destroy the town this time, and hearing Natsu reply in an annoyed manner only made Juvia wonder what the job would be. If Team Natsu could handle a job without Lucy, then which one would they want to take today?

Natsu talked about wanting to take a job that involved burning many bandits in a blaze, but Gray wanted a much better job that didn't involve any reckless harm. He still remembered how yesterday's job involved Natsu trying to stop some petty thieves up in the cold town of Kissaki, and the fact that Natsu destroyed some concession stands that sold gingerbread cookies was simply another reason why Team Natsu had to carefully pick a job. After all, Gray remembered when the team had to give up 90,000 jewels as compensation for Natsu's destruction of the gingerbread cookie stand that had been so very successful.

Erza sighed a bit while she simply wanted the team to handle any kind of job, even if it involved pulling up weeds from around the town, and she looked at Lisanna for some advice on which job would be great for the team to handle. Since Erza was an S-Class mage, the others could go on an S-Class mission with her on their team. With that being said, however, S-Class jobs were not exactly the easiest ones in the world. They involved the dangerous task of fighting monsters or high-level criminals that were pretty bad, and some of them could put a certain user of Wind Magic with a lovely French accent to shame.

Lisanna's blue eyes began to twinkle with a cute amount of delight when she had remembered seeing a great job on the request board, and this certain job had come with the nice reward of 200,000 jewels. It was a pretty decent amount of money for a group of people to split among themselves, and the white-haired girl thought that the job would also not be hard for them. After all, four or five people working well together could easily contribute to the hasty success of a job that seemed difficult for one person to handle on their own. Lisanna also mentioned that this job would take place in an old chateau, and she thought that the request was still on the board behind her.

Juvia looked a bit puzzled while hearing Lisanna talk about how they would have to stop a woman who used Wind Magic, since the blue-haired woman sat across from Lisanna to see the jobs on the request board, and that request was not on the board. It could've previously belonged to a red pin that was stuck against the wooden request board, but it looked like the job was taken. Juvia had not seen Mira stamp any jobs this morning, and only a few people were absent from the Fairy Tail guild today. She could guess that someone took the job, but it wasn't really anything to gripe over.

Lisanna turned around to go look at the request board, before asking her older sister in a calm tone while curiosity entered her cute blue eyes, "Mira-nee, did you notice that a job about stopping a criminal with green hair has been taken?"

Mira replied with a confused look on her face, "Not really.. That's a little odd, considering how I didn't stamp it. Come to think of it, that job only showed up yesterday."

Lisanna was a bit disappointed about losing that job to someone else who could handle it, possibly Gajeel or Team Shadowgear, but the cute girl with white hair noticed that there were other jobs that the team could handle. She looked at many of the flyers to see that they consisted of jobs where criminals had to be taken down, and Lisanna's eyes caught sight of a task where the client was simply asking to be escorted to the end of a tropical jungle that was filled with all sorts of colorful plants. This client also wanted to be wary about picking up many fruits on this task, too, and it seemed like these fruits belonged to a gang or something.

She giggled happily while announcing to Team Natsu that this would be their job today, which caused the fire dragon slayer to get up from his chair to give Lisanna a joyful high-five, and Lisanna could only let her cheeks blush a light shade of pink when Natsu gave her a lovely kiss on the lips. He was pretty happy that she found a great job for the team to handle, and the male with pink hair was even more delighted to see that the flyer had a reward of 600,000 jewels on it. The criminals did not seem to be in the S-Class category, but being in the A-Class category meant that they were still quite dangerous.

Even so, Natsu could only clench his fists tightly while looking excited about the job. He was quite happy about the prospect of burning down a bunch of criminals in the jungle, and he felt quite sure of himself because of the fact that fire spells could easily destroy spells that involved plants. Even if the job would be that easy, would Natsu be able to do it without burning down the entire jungle? Burnt fruit was probably not tasty, and Gray could tell that Natsu's excitement about this mission could result in it being more annoying than being a tropical preparation for the resort.

Gray began to look a bit irritated from how Natsu started saying how this mission would easy, since the ice mage did not want him to end up tempting fate, and the black-haired male was a little surprised to see Juvia giving him a happy smile. She nicely told him that the job would go smoothly, as her water could put out any excess fire, and Juvia cheered Gray's name excitedly while telling him that they could handle this job. The male with dark blue eyes found himself looking a bit displeased by Juvia's high amount of enthusiasm about this, but he smiled slightly at how she'd be there to help Team Natsu out with this task.

As Lisanna and Natsu shared another kiss, before breaking it, Erza told them that it would be a good idea to get this job done quite quickly. She did think about how Lucy would probably spend the rest of the day crying about how Natsu cheated on her, and Erza knew that hearing about that would be very annoying. Lisanna and Natsu did not even care about how Lucy would feel from hearing that they cuddled in a tropical jungle, as they were happy like cuddly bunnies, and the two mages ran out of Fairy Tail's entrance doors with happy smiles on their faces. Gray and Juvia ran after them, and Team Natsu would probably be ready to handle a job on an island.

* * *

 **Two hours later, at Lucy's apartment...**

Lucy had been laying on her couch for a while now, coming to a decision that she thought would be the right choice to make, and the blonde-haired girl got up from the couch to stretch her arms high above her head. She smiled while lowering her arms, before exhaling a soft breath of air, and her cocoa brown eyes began to become filled with a confident look. She had decided that it would be best for her to take Sting's advice, as she did want to do something that would make her feel like she could become stronger, and Lucy had a little plan brewing in her mind.

She thought about how Melissa gained her Wind Magic from books, as the green-haired antagonist was probably someone who liked to read advanced books for the sake of not using standard Wind Magic, and Lucy also thought about what would've happened if water had been in the chateau. Just because Aquarius was Lucy's strongest Celestial Spirit, that did not mean she would've been capable of defeating Melissa. After all, the Elwind-level and Arcwind-level Wind Magic that Melissa wielded were not levels that Lucy could scoff at. Wind Magic in the Arcwind phase was quite dangerous, and maybe it could've even bested Aquarius.

This defeat from Melissa caused Lucy to remember the Naval Battle in last year's Grand Magic Games, as her spirits had some trouble handling Juvia's powerful attacks, and getting tortured by Minerva had made Lucy secretly feel quite weak without her keys. She remembered how Minerva beat her up so badly with her punches and kicks, which resulted in Lucy being seen as trash by the woman with green eyes, so losing to another powerful woman who was also sadistic had somewhat pushed Lucy to the edge. She was tired of being seen as someone who couldn't protect herself, and she wanted to change from that.

Lucy had never told this little secret to anyone in Fairy Tail, but she had aspired to be strong like Minerva. She wanted to be much more powerful than she was last year, but she failed to do that. However, the fact that Sting said she was brave for taking on Melissa had caused Lucy to realize that she just needed to find power like that. Even if the tomes were not forged for them to be at high levels of strength, Lucy knew very well that practicing techniques could always cause them to become stronger. She did not want to be beaten down again by anyone like Melissa, and Lucy also liked how Melissa's spells had not been very typical.

They were moves that she did not expect to see, and new moves like that could be quite beneficial to Lucy. She began to giggle confidently at the thought of being able to defeat Mirajane with tomes that centered around Darkness Magic, but she also knew that using standard magic from a tome would have it at level one. She had been defeated by Melissa's Elwind-level and Arcwind-level magic, which were respectively one level and two levels higher than standard Wind Magic, but Lucy did not know that spells of different levels could mix together for the sake of them both getting a nice power boost.

 _"Perhaps it would be good for me to start reading some tomes, but where do I find them? Would any shops be selling them, or would a library have them?"_ Lucy asked herself with a curious facial expression while she kept thinking about this idea.

Lucy also realized that she would have to deal with low-level spells and high-level spells, which would result in the practice of controlling how much magical power she'd be using, and Lucy had enough common sense to know that higher-level moves took up more energy. She did not want to exhaust herself with moves that were solely used as direct attacks, and the blonde-haired mage smiled a bit from thinking about how Melissa probably had more creative moves in her arsenal. She had to admit that the wind rings and the fast-moving wind arrow were quite unorthodox spells, and Lucy admired how they were really clever moves.

Any user of magic could make up their own spells with creative genius and a good amount of hard work, but making them have greatness would involve lots of training. Lucy was prepared to train really hard, as that would help her get much better at fighting, and she wanted to have some great spells at her disposal as well. She pulled out the ten Zodiac Gate Keys from the right pocket of her pink pajama pants, and Lucy simply looked at her keys with a somewhat disappointed look on her face. She was tired of always hiding behind them, which led to her demise in the Naval Battle last year, and Lucy gently closed her right fist while also slightly clenching on the golden keys as well.

She put them down on the brown coffee table in her living room, before turning around to see that the sun was making light shine through her windows, and Lucy gently closed her eyes to not let any sunlight get in her eyes. She quickly opened her cocoa brown eyes for the purpose of going outside, however, and feeling the sun's heat on her caused Lucy to smile happily. She enjoyed the bright sunlight that shined down on Magnolia, and that light reminded her about Sting. He had given her some good advice, as well as saving her life, and Lucy still had no way to thank him.

He had not wanted any of the money from the job of capturing Melissa, even though she was never actually captured, and Lucy didn't even offer to treat the Sabertooth mages to some food at a restaurant. Rogue did help Sting out, after all, and Yukino did feed Lucy some Oran berries to help her regain a good amount of health. She had to find some way to thank her new friends, even if she had to help them out on a job, and they were nicer than her former team. Lucy was really glad that Sting and Rogue barged into the chateau to help her, and she really wanted to express her gratitude to them.

At that moment, her lips formed a wondrous smile of amazement from the thought of showing Sting that she was determined to change herself into something better. She didn't really need to prove anything to him, but she wanted him to see that she could prove it to herself that moving on was possible. She wouldn't be moving on into a new relationship right away, as this was still the first day that she was now officially off of Team Natsu, but Lucy would be changing herself one step at a time. She was not going to let despair or any other negative emotion keep her down in depression, and she was determined to let her happiness and confidence grow.

* * *

 **55 minutes later, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Lucy arrived at the Fairy Tail guild's entrance doors to see that they were closed while there not much sound coming from behind the doors, and she had to wonder why it was so quiet. There was no possible way for Natsu and the others to be involved in a quiet brawl, as they were always quite rowdy, and Erza was usually the one to give some heavy beatings to Natsu and Gray for acting really stupid. She also had to think that Natsu would be kissing Lisanna in there, but Lucy knew that she couldn't let their romance sway her from the task that she had to do on this calm noon.

There was the possibility that many people were eating lunch in the guild right now, so they wouldn't really care too much about seeing Lucy. They would all probably be enjoying their food, and Natsu could've told the entire guild that he kicked Lucy off of the team. Since that was something she already knew about, there would be no need to hide any secrets from her. She knew that Natsu had cheated on her, but the confident smile on Lucy's face meant that her thoughts were possibly shifting to a different topic. After all, she wouldn't have time to deal with him right now.

She had taken off her pink pajamas that got torn from Melissa's powerful wind attacks, and Lucy currently wore an emerald green T-shirt with some black shorts to match. She also wore some yellow flat shoes as well, in reference to how the color yellow was bright like sunlight, and Lucy still wore the bandages that Yukino had put on her stomach. There were bandages around the bruises that had been made on Lucy's wrists and ankles, and she also had bandages around her forehead as well. The injuries on her forehead came from being caught in the huge blast that injured Melissa, and Lucy had also hit the wall on her front side. She had been unconscious, though, so she didn't even feel the damage.

Lucy had a glimmer of joy in her cocoa brown eyes, not even caring what Natsu or Lisanna would say about her injuries, and the blonde-haired mage could feel that she'd find what she sought in Fairy Tail's library. Even though it was upstairs and could block out most of the noise in the guildhall, Lucy knew that she'd simply have to get past Team Natsu. The fact that the inside of the guild seemed quiet was quite good for Lucy, as no brawls would probably be going on, and the brown-eyed girl maintained her confident attitude in a calm manner while opening the entrance doors to the Fairy Tail.

As the guildhall came into view, Lucy noticed that Fairy Tail wasn't being rowdy right now like it always was. Instead, the guild members were just sitting at tables and chatting. Mirajane was behind the bar, as Cana was drinking from a large keg like usual. Gajeel seemed to be sleeping while Levy was happily reading a book with Lily, prompting Lucy to cheer aloud instead of in her head at the fact that the members of Team Natsu were gone, and she also noticed that Wendy was having a conversation with Carla. Really, didn't this seem like a good afternoon?

Levy asked in a concerned tone while looking worried at Lucy for suddenly cheering, "Lu-chan, how did you get those injuries? Did someone hurt you really badly?"

Lucy replied while smiling, blushing in an odd manner as she did not want to bring up the Sabertooth mages saving her life, "Not really, Levy. I got hurt from falling off of a large tree, but I'm okay. Anyway, I'll see you later."

Before Levy could ask her anymore questions, Lucy ran upstairs to the library for the sake of handling her personal business. She knew that Natsu and Erza would probably not like hearing that mages from Sabertooth saved the life of someone in Fairy Tail, so even saying something that Mira could overhear might not be a good idea for Lucy. She looked back down at the wooden stairs to make sure that no one would be coming up after her, and she also noticed that no one was coming through Fairy Tail's entrance doors. Even though Lucy's morning was quite rough, her afternoon was starting to be alright.

She opened the door to the library of Fairy Tail, a happy smile on her face while she entered the room, and Lucy quickly proceeded to close the door behind her. She looked at the large bookshelves that appeared to be lined with books on many different things, and Lucy started to walk past a few of the bookshelves that had books available to all of the mages. She clearly knew that a mage specializing in Holder Magic would not be able to function well without their items, and the blonde-haired girl went to the eastern half of the library. Lucy went to this side of the library because of the fact that it had books that were forbidden to most people, and Mira once told her to steer clear of the reserved books.

Lucy walked over to a large brown bookshelf that had all sorts of strange books sitting on it, and she could see a book on Territory Magic. That was the type of magic Minerva possessed, allowing her to teleport anywhere, and she could also use it to warp other people to different places. She could also use it in an offensive manner by making deadly energy waves that could be intensely hot or feel like metal, and Lucy knew that type of magic could be deadly. She bit down on her lower lip while thinking about taking this book, but it would merely lead her away from what she initially came here to find.

The sweet girl let her cocoa brown eyes scan some of the other books that were on the bookshelf, deciding to not waste her time with Black Bomb Magic or Sound Wave Magic, and Lucy began to think that there was no chance of finding the book that she really wanted. Had the greatest tome of Wind Magic been checked out already? If so, then Lucy could only sigh in a disappointed manner about the fact that she'd have to pick a different type of magic. Well, that would not be too much of a letdown. After all, a different type of magic had its own specialty with moves and offensive capabilities.

With some hope in her heart, Lucy squatted down to see the books that were at the very bottom of the bookshelf. She had a focused look on her face while ignoring books on Candy Magic and Cooking Magic, but she started to have a smile on her face from seeing a sapphire blue book next to a book on how to make explosive candle wax. Lucy took the book out from the shelf to see that it was titled _Water Tomes For Contests: Sixth Edition_ , and this book looked very interesting. Lucy opened it up to see the text written in blue, along with the sections for the levels of the Water Magic, and she noticed that the book's first page of info seemed to be instructions on how to it.

"In order to wield the spells from this collector's edition of blue tomes, the reader must first let the book send its energy into their body. The reader must also be aware that they can use different classes of spells, but only in ascending order. There is more to know, but that is for the reader to personally discover." Lucy quietly read to herself while looking at the text on the first page, seeing that the author of this book applied rules to how the spells could be used.

In order to activate the contract with the blue tome, even though she'd only be wielding its spells, Lucy had to slam her hand down on the front cover of the book. She set the sapphire blue book down on the ground, before slamming her right palm against the blue cover, and Lucy was surprised at what happened next. A blue aura began to engulf her body while blue electricity started to come from the book, and Lucy quietly groaned while being electrocuted! The book was sending its power into her body, her mind moving at a fast rate while she began to see many spells of Water Magic for a few seconds, and the blue aura sent itself into Lucy's mouth. It sent itself down into her body, filling the blonde-haired mage with power, and Lucy fell to the ground with a soft thud.

She stayed motionless for a few moments, before slowly standing up, and Lucy put the blue book back on the shelf. She felt more powerful but she didn't have tons of power to the point where she could kill a criminal with one hit. In fact, she just felt like there was a bit more power within her. Lucy did not know what she had just done, but she had hoped that it was something good. She had heard that spells of Water Magic could be used defensively, but she had to wonder if they could also be used in creative ways to attack like how Melissa had used her lethal wind attacks.

Needing a bit of time to think, Lucy walked past the bookcase to make a left turn that would take her all the way to the other side of the library. She did not want to get caught on the forbidden side of the library, and Lucy also felt the need to open up the doors of a nearby window. She could feel the gentle breeze of the wind touch her face with ease, causing her to like how this was a calm afternoon, and Lucy suddenly felt the need to shoot out six small blue bubbles of water from her left hand. They floated around in the air, before another breeze sent them high into the sky, and Lucy had a clear image enter her mind.

That move was known as Water Bubbles, which was simply part of standard Water Magic, and Lucy brought out another spell known as Water Satellite. This move caused a blue whirlpool of water to form in her hands, and it went straight up into the ring that had been formed by the six bubbles. The whirlpool was slightly larger than the bubbles, and Lucy looked up to see that the bubbles went into the whirlpool for the sake of powering it up. This was not like chain power, as that would make the move get incredibly powerful, and what happened next was quite interesting.

The whirlpool of water came crashing down from the sky to land between some trees, and a large blue blast of energy transpired! It had enough power to destroy the five trees around it, leaving a large crater behind, and the noise caused Gajeel and Lily to come running outside. Lucy quickly closed the windows shut, before looking quite shocked at what she had just done, and it looked like those two simple moves had combined to create a more powerful move. The attack left some shiny blue glittery energy behind, which looked a bit beautiful, but the blue glitter quickly faded away.

Lucy had to wonder why she had thought of those two spells looking pretty together, as she was even more surprised by their power, and she looked a bit startled from realizing that the book contained contest spells from water tomes. Contests in Fiore were like competitions where mages could show off the beauty and creativity of their moves in the appeal rounds and battles, which were far different from standard fights, and Lucy had heard some stuff about them from Mirajane. Contests were for mages who were creative fighters, so the author of that book could've been one of them.

She thought about using this new magic in good combos with Aquarius during fights on jobs, but what about her other spirits? Not all of them worked well in water, especially not Sagittarius, and Lucy knew that arrows wouldn't be effective in battles involving water. She was curious to try out more magic that had been given to her from the blue tome, but Lucy decided that it would have to wait until later. After all, she did want to show these new watery skills to Sting. It would be her way of letting him see that she could move on, and she hoped that he would give her a confident smile to make her giggle with a joyous sense of accomplishment.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 4? Did you like it? Even though Lucy learned magic from a book, this will be the only instance of that happening in this story. In the next few chapters, you shall see how Lucy gets to learn magic. Her Celestial Spirits shall be stronger as well, so standby for the update!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **Testing The Blue Waters**

* * *

The next night, Lucy had been packing her suitcase for what would possibly be a great journey to a new town. She had gone to the Fairy Tail guild earlier today to pick up a flyer that came with a good amount of reward money, but the job itself was not the only reason why Lucy would get out of Magnolia. She had gone to the library to read a few modern books about Fiore's maps, and she was quite pleased to find out that the guild of Sabertooth was located in a town known as Hearthome. That place was known for its bakery shops that made the finest desserts, and the city was also quite large.

Lucy also knew that it would be a good idea to show off her new powers to Sting, as he'd most likely be happy to see that she learned Water Magic from a blue tome, and she would also want to take Sting out to eat as a way of thanking him for saving her life in that fight against Melissa. She really wanted to show her gratitude to her new friends, especially since they had been much nicer than her old crew that kicked her out of Team Natsu, and Lucy even smiled a bit with delight in her cocoa brown eyes at the thought of leaving Fairy Tail to go join up with Sabertooth.

Even though Fairy Tail tended to have some good jobs, Lucy really wanted to get away from Natsu. She had not seen him or Lisanna for the second time in a row, meaning that they were off on some long job, and Erza was also absent. Gray and Juvia were also not in the Fairy Tail guild today, but Lucy knew that she had her own business to handle. She didn't have time to deal with Natsu's drama, and she wasn't exactly going to cry about seeing him kiss Lisanna. If their relationship was solid like a stone, then Lucy just had to ignore that stone. They weren't relevant to how she'd try improving her skills, so thinking about them would just be a waste of time.

Lucy had been focusing on creating more spells of Water Magic, even if they were just at the standard level, and Lucy had made a new move called Water Scald. This move simply caused the blonde-haired mage to shoot out a spiraling beam of blue water from her mouth, and the water was at a very high temperature for it to burn through metal or ice. She had also used another spell known as Aqua Sword, and this spell caused a light blue katana to be in Lucy's hands. She could slash at what was in front of her, even if it was a tree, and this move made a light blue crescent-shaped beam of energy slice right through the tree.

Despite the fact that these spells seemed powerful, they were only capable of making miniature sapphire blue blasts of Water Magic transpire. Well, that was to be expected from spells that were in the typical level of Water Magic. Lucy would just have to upgrade those spells or fuse them together to create powerful attacks, but that did not stop her from smiling slightly. She knew that it was simply part of her training, and getting stronger with this Water Magic would also make her feel much better about herself. On top of that, she just had to think creatively with her moves.

 _"I know that it would be bad to leave Fairy Tail without saying anything, but this is the path I'm taking for the sake of becoming stronger."_ Lucy thought to herself, as she began to frown while putting a large amount of money into the suitcase.

She spent most of the day thinking up new moves that she could use and fuse together, since using basic spells by themselves would not be good, but Lucy was also careful to create moves that wouldn't use up too much magical power. No one in Fairy Tail had ever really talked about combining moves, but Lucy would definitely have some things to say about how fun it could be to use her Water Magic in such cool ways. In fact, she had even thought up some spells that were quite large. Merging two powerful spells together would be great, but Lucy did not want to exhaust herself.

The Celestial Spirit Wizard had thought about using Aquarius as a good supporter for these new spells of Water Magic, but Lucy did not even know if a Celestial Spirit was compatible with magic from tomes. That would be an interesting thing to try out, as the results could be good or bad, and Lucy was very interested to see what she could do with this magic. However, she couldn't just be using spells in a reckless manner. After all, she did need to find a good place to train without destroying a forest or smashing down a rocky area.

She got up off the couch, before zipping up the black suitcase that was filled with cash and clothes, and Lucy walked out of her apartment. She had left a letter behind, addressing it to her landlady, and Lucy would no longer be paying rent. She was officially moving out of Magnolia, as getting away from her troubles was the best way for her to keep thinking with a clear mind, and Lucy felt like starting a life while trying to change herself into a better person. The fact that she wanted a fresh start was a simple way of her telling Natsu that she was moving on, and she'd soon be far away from him.

Lucy had proceeded to run all the way to the harbor of Magnolia, as that was where the ships would be located, and she was hoping to catch the last boat that would be heading for the city of Hearthome. She could hear the foghorn sound off in the distance, meaning that the ship was preparing to leave, and Lucy now knew that she wouldn't make it in time. She had a frustrated facial expression while clenching her fists tightly, and Lucy was determined to handle this job with her new friends. Plus, Sting was a pretty nice guy. She enjoyed their conversation in the forest, and he seemed like a nice person to chat with.

There had to be a way for Lucy to reach the town of Hearthome, despite the fact that it was across the sea, and she knew that thinking of a new spell could help her solve this problem. She kept thinking about Sting while running to the harbor, liking how he was a good friend who could grin with a nice amount of confidence, and Lucy really wanted to visit him. Her desire to see her new friend was quite awesome, as Lucy seemed to be having much more ambition in her heart, and the brown-eyed mage refused to let her determination waver in the midst of a tough situation.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, in the town of Hearthome...**

Sting and Rogue had been investigating a place that had recently appeared in the town of Hearthome, having actually stood in front of an old-fashioned Japanese mansion because of some people saying that they would enter that place, and the dragon slayers could guess that this place was created by a criminal. It really didn't fit well with the modern buildings in the town, and this building was also a little creepy. The dragon slayers had not heard any weird movements coming from within this large residence, and Rogue had heard from an old woman in Hearthome that the mansion could destroy people with its toxicity. There were rumors of the entire mansion itself melting into purple sludge while anyone inside of it would be trapped, never to be seen again, and that could certainly be a frightening issue for the two Sabertooth mages.

Rogue had looked calm while also being cautious as he stood next to Sting, wondering if it would even be safe to go inside that mansion of poison, but he ultimately decided on testing things out with a simple Shadow Dragon's Roar. Rogue fired a spiraling black vortex of shadows from his mouth, watching it quickly tear through the old mansion, and the house now had a few large gaping holes in it while the shadows broke through walls. There had been no one inside the toxic mansion to react against Rogue's attack, causing Sting to smirk in a cocky manner, but what happened next would really put a halt to his confident mood.

The house began turning purple, melting slowly while it was now turning into goop, and both of the dragon slayers looked shocked to see something like this transpiring before their very eyes. This was no ordinary mansion, or was it even a mansion at all? The purple goop was also bubbling in a violent manner, almost like it was acid, and Sting could only drop his jaw as more of the mansion began to melt. It was decimating into a large puddle of toxic sludge, making Rogue see that the person who caused this had combined Poison Magic with Molding Magic to make their goop take the form of and solidify into the huge house that silenced those who entered it for any reason.

It was quite strange for someone to put so much Poison Magic into making a large house, since that was a pretty weird way of trying to trap people, but it was even more strange to see that the acidic goop began to rise up and quickly change its shape to look like a woman. The goop began to harden as well, causing Sting to narrow his blue eyes while he could tell that this person was capable of altering their magic's properties. That would definitely make this fight become rather tricky, especially since it looked like this person could shift between various properties of Poison Magic at a fast rate, and the toxic shell quickly broke apart to reveal the poisonous perpetrator.

This foe was a woman who had long purple hair like Minerva, only having her purple hair down in a simple manner, and she only wore a purple kimono while she stepped out of the toxic shell that was breaking apart. Sting had to wonder why this woman would be causing trouble to people in this town, since none of them really seemed quite bad, and he could surprisingly smell the grape perfume coming out of her mouth while she exhaled a soft breath of air. Drinking perfume was like drinking poison, which really fit this woman because she was a user of Poison Magic, and she loved to create toxicity for the sake of harming other people.

"Hello, you cute mages. My name is Anzu Sekichiku, and I am a user of Poison Magic. I can guess that you're here to arrest me because of how I like to cause chaos in your town, and I also enjoyed tampering with the cooking sections of Magic Contests. After all, people should admire a bit of food poisoning." The woman told Sting and Rogue in a sweet tone, having a sense of seduction in her violet eyes.

Sting replied in a stern tone, clenching his fists tightly while he was determined to take down Anzu, "You're the one who is making people get sick in Magic Contests, huh? Rogue and I had to shut down the Contest Hall last month because of your mischief, and we won't let you hurt anymore people in this town."

Rogue simply sighed in an annoyed manner, knowing that Sting was making the wrong move by trying to rile up a vicious female, and he activated Shadow Drive while his blond ally went into his White Drive upgrade. Sting started this battle off by firing his White Dragon's Roar at Anzu his White Drive making the size of the spell be four times larger than normal, and some purple smoke immediately appeared before the attack even hit Anzu! Sting looked shocked to see that his foe exhaled a purple cloud of poison that could create an average explosion, its side effect creating toxic clouds that could hurt anyone who breathed them in, so Sting had to stay distant from Anzu.

He decided to now use his Holy Ray attack in an attempt to hit Anzu with a copious amount of white beams that were composed from his pure white light, hoping to hit Anzu with his beams of light that traveled towards her in curved trajectories, but the user of Poison Magic giggled a little bit while hastily stepping into a small puddle of purple goop that had been left behind from her previous explosive counterattack against Sting's first move. This puddle of sludge was part of a spell from an elemental tome, since Poison Magic was surprisingly legal in the appeal rounds Magic Contests, and Anzu simply hid in the puddle while Sting's holy rays crashed into the ground to create many small white blasts of energy.

Before any of the smoke could fade away, though, Anzu jumped out of the puddle with an evil smirk on her face. She inhaled all of the smoke, taking in more smog for her body to enjoy, and Anzu quickly noticed that Rogue was no longer next to his friend. She turned around quickly while sensing that an attack was coming soon, and her intuition had been correct. The violet-eyed woman was about to be attacked by Rogue, who had taken the form of a shadow to attack her from behind, and he was about to strike her with his move known as Shadow Dragon's Slash. He had disappeared before hitting her with it, though, and Rogue most likely did this to confound her.

The shadow dragon slayer had reappeared behind Anzu, making her turn around again, and he was about to hit her with his mighty slash. However, Anzu did a few backflips up into the air while gaining some distance from the red-eyed male. She then proceeded to use a new move known as Poisonous Sludge Bomb, and this made the antagonist shoot out five blobs of poison from her mouth. They were met with Rogue using his Shadow Dragon's Roar to effectively stop them, despite the fact that they instantly made five large amethyst purple explosions occur upon impact with the black-haired male's vortex of shadows, but the side effect could not be stopped.

As Rogue was about to close his mouth to avoid the poison, him and Sting both looked shocked to see that there were five more purple puddles of sludge on the ground. They were clearly made from those explosions, Anzu warping from one to the next at a fast pace, and matters were worsened when Rogue saw her jump out of the puddle closest to him. She put her warm hands on his cheeks, letting him know that this battle had really made her feel excited, but she shot out a purple liquid from her mouth to make it all hit Rogue's face. The shadow dragon slayer could feel his body going numb because of this attack, and the poison gas from earlier had made him fall to the ground in front of Anzu's face.

Her clouds of poison had also nullified the young man's magical power to zero for a limited time, but Anzu could use that window of opportunity to now strike Sting. The white dragon slayer was now going to take her down with all of his strength, looking pretty peeved about how she had just hurt Rogue, and he ran towards her to show the violet-haired villain that magic was not all that it took to win a battle. He was now going to strike her with White Dragon's Punch, allowing a large amount of light to surround his left fist, and Sting hit her right in the face with his attack. Anzu was sent sliding a few feet backward, before Sting hit her with a barrage of punches while his fists were now engulfed in holy white light.

While Sting was hitting Anzu, though, he groaned a bit as it felt like no progress had been made. It's not that his punches were weak, since they had made Janine now have many cracks on her body, but what normal person would be fragile like glass? He stepped back quickly while hearing the pieces of Anzu's poison shell break while they hit the ground, shattering like glass, and the shell had also melted down to the ground in a pile of goop for Sting to now have the chance to see that this poisonous woman could also make toxic clones. The real Anzu rose up from a puddle that was behind Sting, quickly putting her arms around him, and she hugged him tightly to keep him from getting out of her tight grasp.

Anzu told him in a flirty tone, giggling evilly before she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, "There's no way to escape from me, my cute dragon slayer, and you're just lucky that little kiss from me had no poison mixed into it. You're such a very sexy man, and I'll heal you up after our poisonous kiss of love."

Sting replied in a miffed manner while he still tried to free himself from her grasp, blushing a bit as her hands were now rubbing his muscular arms to keep him soothed, "Look, lady. You are just a toxic vixen with some serious issues about the type of magic that you wield, and I'm the guild master of Sabertooth. I can tell the Magic Contest officials to ban you for three years. If you don't want that, then let me go!"

As Anzu grabbed Sting's vest to take it off and throw it down to the ground, the blue-eyed male was really wishing that Minerva had not taken Yukino, Rufus, and Orga out on an S-Class job that had to be taken care of. Sting could only shake a bit while Anzu walked around to the other side of him, before she gave a gentle kiss to his forehead, and he became even more freaked out when she asked him about bathing with her in a hot spring. Just because Sting was quite a hot guy, that did not exactly mean he was into crazy women. In fact, he wondered if any women could help him right now.

* * *

 **At Magnolia's harbor...**

Lucy had arrived a few minutes late, as she saw the last ship to Hearthome Town sailing out in the blue waters of the ocean, but she would not beat herself up about this. She had figured out a way to cross the ocean without the need a ship, and it came in the form of a spell known as Water Shark Torpedo. She felt the need the aim her right hand at the water, sending a blue aura of energy down into it, and that blue aura made some of the water take the form of a vicious shark. The shark was quite large, even having dangerous fangs, and Lucy stepped on to it with no hesitation. The water shark felt quite dense, almost like it was a metallic fish, and Lucy was able to stand on it.

She created another spell known as Water Obliteration, and this spell was in the Elwater-level. It simply involved a blue sphere of Water Magic forming in Lucy's right hand, before she accidentally dropped it down to where her shark would eat it, and the water shark began to smile confidently while it suddenly began heading towards Hearthome Town at double speed! Lucy tried her best to balance on her shark, starting to see it like a fast-moving surfboard, and Lucy swerved left and right to avoid the rocks that were in the ocean. It also seemed like the shark was more powerful, since it grew to be twice its normal size.

The blonde-haired mage was going to use Water Obliteration on an enemy, but this little accident was also okay. She could see that there were some purple clouds in the streets of Hearthome Town, before smelling something like poison with great potency, and Lucy really hoped that her shark would not charge into that. She tried telling the shark to stop, but it only kept going faster. Lucy could only look quite shocked from seeing the water shark slide up a rock like it was a ramp, and she found herself being high over Hearthome Town. Her cocoa brown eyes could faintly see Sting through the purple smoke, and it appeared that someone had hurt Rogue.

Taking a bold chance, Lucy angled the water shark to go downward towards Sting. Lucy let out a worried scream while knowing that she'd come crashing in at high speeds, and she jumped off at the last second while shooting out a small bubble from her right hand to give the shark even more power. Lucy went down to th ground while seeing Sting and his foe step back from each other, and the purple-haired woman looked very terrified to suddenly be hit by Lucy's water shark! It made a huge blue blast of Water Magic transpire when it hit Anzu, and a large gale from the blast made all the purple smoke clouds fade away!

Lucy stayed on the ground while she heard a woman scream in agonizing pain from that attack, smiling a bit at how luck helped her strike Sting's opponent, and her brown eyes could see a side effect of her powered-up move. It changed Anzu's purple poison puddles into hard blue puddles that gave off a strong blueberry aroma, and they quickly shattered to create lots of blue glitter. Lucy slowly stood up while seeing the smoke clouds fading away, but she was suddenly met with Sting playfully tackling her down. He had been pretty happy to see her, and Sting gave her a great smile of thanks.

"Hey, Lucy! It looks like you learned some new stuff, and you got here in the nick of time! That crazy poisonous woman has been making people sick, and she's tampered with Magic Contests. Rogue and I tried arresting her, but she is strong and Rogue got poisoned." Sting explained to her with a somewhat frustrated look on his face, hoping that Anzu's poison wouldn't infect Lucy's water.

The Celestial Spirit Wizard replied in a confident tone while she now understood the situation, "Yeah, I got new skills from a blue tome in Fairy Tail's library. Anyway, don't worry. It looks like we'll just have to handle this enemy with some creativity."

As the smoke faded away, Anzu could only look quite angry from how blood was now on her face. It had also been on her arms and legs, due to Lucy's shark having some powerful fangs that chomped down on her limbs before it detonated, and the poisonous woman shot out a large vortex of purple poison from her mouth. She was also miffed that someone intruded in on her one-sided love with Sting, but it's not like she was even his type of woman. Anzu was mad that another woman had now entered this fight, and she planned on killing Lucy.

Upon seeing the vortex of poison headed straight for her, Lucy simply countered it with her own new move. This was the spell known as Water Scald, and Lucy shot out a spiraling beam of blue water from her mouth. The water was at quite a hot temperature, but Lucy took things to the next level by following up with the Aqua Sword attack. She looked at the light blue katana that appeared in her hands, and Lucy simply moved the side for the purpose of slashing at the scalding hot beam of blue water. The crescent-shaped beam of light blue energy struck her water, causing the two spells to fuse together, and the attack began to spin around in Anzu's vortex!

Anzu could only let out a heckling laugh at how Lucy just screwed up, but the blonde-haired mage had a confident grin on her face. She watched her the scalding hot beam of water begin to slice through the vortex while both attacks spun together, and Anzu's vortex began turning blue because of how Lucy's attack was starting to overtake it. Lucy had also sent another crescent-shaped wave of energy into the vortex, strengthening her attack in a nice combination, and the large vortex suddenly detonated in midair! It created a large spherical blue blast of Water Magic with intense heat that destroyed Anzu's poison, and the violet-haired woman was utterly shocked to see that another mage had a thing for Magic Contests.

Even though Lucy was not into Magic Contests, her brown eyes were filled with delight from seeing the aftermath of her attack. It had created a large crater in the ground, even though Rufus could fix that with his Memory-Make Magic, and there were some blue puddles of water in the crater as well. As Lucy looked to her right for the sake of seeing that Rogue was unconscious, Lucy knew that this battle had to end. She was about to make the puddles explode or even make them do something really cool, but Sting ended the fight by punching Anzu right in the face.

She had rolled across the ground while still looking quite shocked as her attention was on Lucy for their little scuffle, and Anzu never even noticed that Sting used the cover of the blasts to hit Anzu with a cheap sneak attack. Despite the fact that Lucy had wanted to finish the battle, she began to pant heavily with a feeling of exhaustion. She had used up a lot of magical power in that fight, since her attacks had fused together to make Elwater-level spells, and the Water Obliteration spell was also in the Elwater category. Its offensive power had not been seen yet, but using Elwater-spell moves took up lots of energy.

* * *

 **One hour later, at a bakery shop...**

After Lucy had recovered enough energy to move, she and Sting had gone to a bakery shop that also sold berries. They got some Pecha Berries for Rogue, which ended up getting rid of the poison in his body, and the trio decided to stay in the bake shop for the hour. After all, Sting would want to know why Lucy came here with a suitcase that got soaking wet from being dragged across the ocean. He had to wonder if all the noise could be heard from Magnolia, and the blond-haired male thought that it would be embarrassing if his new friend heard his screams for help when Anzu was flirting with him.

Still, he was really impressed with Lucy's new Water Magic. She told him how she created four new spells to make only two new fusions, but Sting knew that four moves were better than none. He could guess that Melissa had been the source of inspiration for Lucy to start practicing magic from an elemental tome, and she probably did not want anyone to beat her down like that ever again. Lucy had really been trying to get creative, as that would greatly help her in battles, and Sting could only give her a thumbs-up from how she was starting to be a bit skillful.

On top of that, he also liked how she picked an awesome outfit for the nightly hours. Lucy currently wore a purple T-shirt with some blue jeans, and she also wore some brown flat shoes to complete the outfit. She looked quite fashionable, which Sting really liked, and Lucy's happy smile made him glad that they were allies. He also loved the fact that she bought a bunch of chocolate cupcakes for the group to enjoy, and sweets could make anyone's mood be better. Sting would've been more ecstatic about seeing Anzu get arrested as well, but the Sabertooth guild had repeatedly gotten an annoying flyer.

He thought about how so many people wanted the Contest Hall to be open again, since all the mages wielding tomes had been wanting to reach a great tournament where the best mages at Magic Contests would battle each other, but Sting chose to keep it closed because of how he watched one of the Magic Contests. Even though a girl with Darkness Magic did exceptionally well in the appeal round, cooking round, and battle round, the first-place trophy went to Anzu. That violet-eyed woman had bad performances, and even the judges were surprised. Could Anzu have done some shady backstage business, or was it illogical luck?

Plus, he wanted that business to be handled after the Grand Magic Games. Lucy had now entered his town, and Sting happily wanted to know why she came to Hearthome. He would not be surprised, if Natsu had done something else to get on Lucy's nerves, but Lucy could've also come here to handle a job. Sting knew that he could handle any type of job, except the ones where flirty women would be trying to seduce him, and the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic wondered if there were any other criminals in Hearthome. Aside from Anzu, many people were pretty scared to even try hurting people from Sabertooth because of the fact that they were powerful mages.

"So, Lucy, what brings you here to Hearthome Town? Are you here to try our coffee that's the best in Fiore?" Sting asked her with a confident grin on his face, as he knew that the coffee was extremely appealing.

Lucy replied in a calm tone while smiling, her cocoa brown eyes looking over at her black suitcase for a moment, "Well, I have a good job to do in this town. However... Please let me join Sabertooth. I don't want to be in Fairy Tail anymore."

She told him that it was because she didn't want to see Natsu and Lisanna rubbing their love in her face, and Lucy did not want any romantic feelings for the fire dragon slayer to ever resurface. She decided that it was in her best interest to not care about him anymore, as he was just a cheater, and Lucy also chose to not compare herself with Lisanna. She did not need to see either of them for quite a while, and Lucy felt like a fresh start would make things much better for her life. It truly would, and she'd probably get to have more fun.

Lucy was about to ask Sting some questions about Magic Contests, but she chose to keep quiet about that because of the fact that they had passed by a dome-shaped building known as the Contest Hall. A sign on its front doors said "Closed due to cheating and food poisoning", so Lucy was able to understand why Sting or Hearthome Town's mayor would temporarily close down the Magic Contests. She also felt happy about Sting possibly giving her a nice tour of Sabertooth, so that was another reason to not have any talk about competing in Magic Contests.

As Lucy picked up a chocolate cupcake to take a bite out of it, she was suddenly met with the sight of seeing Anzu crawling on the street outside while she looked really scared. The evil woman with violet eyes was about to scream, but a purple sphere floated in front of her in midair. It captured Anzu with gravitational force, before destroying her with a purple implosion, and Lucy saw the smoke clear up quickly to see that no one was there anymore. She could hear soft footsteps walking away from the bakery shop, almost like that person just intended to end it quickly, and Lucy could tell that being a mage of Sabertooth would definitely be interesting.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 5? Did you like it? I decided to have a villain with Poison Magic in this story, but only for a way to let Lucy test out her new skills. I also hope you enjoyed the first of some nightly chapters that may be seen. Also, chapters without Fairy Tail are for showing off a lot of the story from the sides of Lucy and Sting. Standby for the update!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **New In Town, New Rival: The Intro To Contests**

* * *

Since Lucy had officially moved out of her apartment in the town of Magnolia, she needed a place to live in the town of Hearthome. Sting knew that the cost of living in this extravagant town was quite high, as he had been shocked that the cost of renting an apartment was 700,000 jewels for one month, and he didn't want Lucy to be put through more stress. Sting had been sitting at a white table outside of a cafe while Lector sat across from him, the red Exceed looking a bit puzzled about what to do, and Sting was simply eating a triple chocolate cake while his mind went back to last night.

Lucy told him that she wanted to join the Sabertooth guild because of the fact that she didn't want to be in Fairy Tail anymore, and her cocoa brown eyes were filled with a desire to work hard. She really had been trying to improve herself, even though her spells did need work, and Lucy did not want to be a burden to her new friends. The blonde-haired girl really felt like she needed to find a really good way to thank Sting, Rogue, and Yukino for saving her life. Sting could understand her desires to get stronger and show satisfactory gratitude, and he felt like helping her out with the elemental spells would be the best thing to do.

Just because the Magic Contests were not transpiring right now, that did not mean Sting hadn't seen people practicing for them. He had even seen Yukino training with Libra to manipulate gravity for the sake of making chocolate cookies float through the air for the appeal round of a contest, and many of the females in Sabertooth had been wanting to show off the beauty of their moves. Sting was somewhat excited for the contests, even though Minerva wouldn't enter, and he also liked how some people dressed up in fancy clothing for the competitions. Being fancy in the appeal round was not all that there was to contests, though.

Sting knew that the battle rounds could be quite tough, as those fights were different from battles in the Grand Magic Games, and battles in contests required people to show off the beauty or grace of their moves. That type of battling required a person to make their spells have a rather artistic style that could make the judges see more than just the power of moves, so creative thinking would be quite vital. Even with this knowledge about contests, however, Sting never wanted to compete in any of them. He just thought it would be nice to not get laughed at, especially since people probably still had an opinion of him from last year's Grand Magic Games.

As the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic began to think more about Magic Contests, he remembered how he had reserved a vacant room at the Sabertooth guild last night for Lucy. Since he had not told her about it, however, she slept at the table in the bake shop. She had been training outside of the town for a few hours on this fine morning, despite the fact that power was not really used to win contests, and Sting took a moment to imagine how Lucy would look in a beautiful black dress. He wasn't attracted to her, but Sting did love thinking about how a woman look in a great dress. That was why he liked to look at Minerva, even if she had a harsh personality.

"Sting-kun, how will Lucy-san do in Magic Contests? There's no way you'd open up the Contest Hall again, right?" Lector asked in a curious tone while he turned around to see blue bubbles pop in the air to create a glittery effect.

Sting responded in a calm tone while sighing a bit, "I won't reopen the building because that stinking Anzu poisoned people many times. It sucks, but the building's staying closed. As for Lucy, maybe we'll focus on the battle portion of Magic Contests. Fusing spells together isn't everything to these competitions, you know."

Lector proceeded to ask Sting if he remembered the time that Orga won in a Magic Contest by pure luck, and Sting told his friend that luck was only good for battles involving power. It wasn't like Lucy would need luck to win, but she simply needed to make spells that were quite interesting. However, Sting knew that trying to teach something complex to Lucy would be more difficult than giving her basic lessons on how to make graceful moves have great amounts of power to fully show them off. Of course, he tried to think that he was a big expert on Magic Contests.

Sting may have not been a true expert, but he was quite a social guy who knew many people. Minerva was still out on a job with Rufus, Orga, and Yukino, so there weren't any true experts who could teach Lucy about dealing with Magic Contests. However, there were some people who trained hard to be great at contests. Sting could probably assist them in teaching Lucy about contests, as he did like being in the spotlight, and he also hoped to improve his bond with Lucy. She seemed like a really nice girl who could be pretty awesome, and Sting knew that getting to know her would be good for their friendship.

He kept on eating his chocolate cake while looking at the people passing by to see who could help him be a great tutor to Lucy, but Sting saw no one interesting. Some of these people were just citizens of Hearthome who really just liked to enjoy being in the town, and it seemed like most of the people who specialized in Magic Contests were out on jobs. He could only groan at how those people were hasty enough to go test out their fancy skills in other places, and that probably left him with no one to help him out. However, Sting knew that he had to stay positive about this situation.

Even if there was no one to assist him with this task, Sting knew that giving up was not an option. He had once asked one of his fellow mages about how his skills would work in a Magic Contest, and the girl with brown hair had simply told him that it was possible to use one move for the sake of creating another. That was quite interesting, as that advice could also help someone in the Grand Magic Games, and Sting simply had to give that sweet advice to Lucy. After all, who wouldn't want great free tips on how to do something? He was ready to go give her some advice, and Sting smiled confidently while knowing that she'd probably like it.

As Sting used his silver spoon to pick up another piece of the chocolate cake that was on the gold plate, he could see that a large blue blast of Water Magic transpired! His blue eyes widened in shock from seeing two more large blasts follow it, and this could only mean that Lucy was practicing quite hard. She had been training for almost two hours now, and it seemed like Lucy was trying to power up her moves. That would be somewhat useful in Contests, if it was done right, and Sting decided to run to the grassy park outside of Hearthome for the sake of seeing Lucy's cool skills.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Natsu and the rest of the team had gotten back from the mission that took place on the tropical island, all five members looking quite exhausted from the arduous job, and Erza appeared to be holding a basket of tropical fruits that Team Natsu received for accomplishing the task of defeating the bandits who were looking for treasure in the jungle. They had come really close to receiving the money, but Natsu had accidentally made his Fire Dragon's Roar go right through the bag when he had to kill a distant Venus Flytrap that was lunging straight for Lisanna. It seemed like he cared for love more than money, right?

Lisanna did not seem upset about this mission, but Erza had hit Natsu on the head for burning up the money. He could've just jumped in the way of the Venus Flytrap, before burning it, but he didn't do that. Natsu really had to learn that there was a way to protect two things that the team would care about, and Erza thought that this mission was a failure. She was really hoping to get some money, but the mage with scarlet hair also knew that she could just take a job tomorrow for some quick cash. That would probably make up for Natsu's mishap, and she wouldn't have any problems.

Natsu was about to eat a fruit that looked like a large blueberry, but he decided to start off with kissing Lisanna on the cheek while they sat next to each other. He loved to kiss her smooth skin, as it always felt so good to hear her giggle, and Natsu also loved to kiss the white-haired mage's lips. He enjoyed how Lisanna looked at him with those cute blue eyes, and seeing her cheeks blush a light shade of pink had only caused the fire dragon slayer to be more glad that he saved her life. Natsu was glad that his new girlfriend was so cute, and she had thought that he was a very hot guy.

Lisanna gave Natsu a loving hug while she promised to buy him something to make up for the money that was lost, and she wondered if he would be happy with the idea of going on a date tonight. She had been wanting to go out with him again, since she loved to see Natsu grin in a goofy way at all the great food that he'd eat, and the blue-eyed girl loved how Natsu would eat his meals. He sure loved to eat, even going as far as to buy tons of fish for himself and Happy to share, but there was something else that caught Natsu's attention. He sniffed the air in the Fairy Tail guild for a moment, closing his eyes while he recognized many familiar scents, but one scent was missing.

While Natsu seemed to be sniffing for someone's scent, Gray looked around the guild to see who had showed up today. He could see that Wendy and Gajeel were sitting at a table with Levy while Laxus seemed to be in a conversation with the Thunder God Tribe, and Cana was drinking alcohol from a keg while she sat alone at a table. It seemed like the guild was in full attendance, as Mirajane popped up from behind the bar, but Gray realized that a certain girl with blonde hair was not here right now. In fact, she'd usually be in the guild right now. In fact, why was she not here to pout about Natsu being with Lisanna?

"I wonder why Lucy isn't here today, since she always has the issue of paying her high rent." Gray said aloud to himself while looking quite curious about the brown-eyed mage's absence.

Lisanna replied to him in a sweet tone of voice while she was smiling, "Maybe she's still just crying over how me and Natsu got together. She did see us kiss, so maybe she's depressed."

Erza knew that Lisanna had a happy smile on her face because of how it was really possible that Lucy could've been really upset over Natsu moving on, but she also knew that Lucy had been kicked off the team because of the fact that she was not strong enough. Lucy had been a weak mage who could only use Holder Magic, and her loss to Flare Corona in last year's Grand Magic Games was kind of humiliating. Erza also knew that Lucy took long showers when she would get depressed, so she was probably spending these early hours in the morning with her tears of sadness.

Lucy was quite sensitive, but she would never let her emotions drive her to a boiling point. It's not like she would ever attack Natsu like a raging maniac, as that was something she'd never really do, and Lucy would probably just keep crying about how her heart had been broken. Erza knew about how Lucy would react to certain things, especially when she was really hurt or really scared, and the woman with scarlet red hair looked at Fairy Tail's entrance doors to see that they were closed. There was no sign of Lucy coming in soon, and she was probably using this as her day off.

Erza also had to wonder if Lucy had been training while not being reckless, as she saw that the request board was filled with jobs involving the capture of criminals, and the scarlet-haired mage did have to hope that Lucy would not be doing anything crazy. Getting dumped could cause a person to do many things that were considered irrational, such as taking their own life, and Erza hoped that Lucy would not do something like that. After all, it would shock the guild to hear that someone committed suicide. With that being said, however, Lucy's fate was currently unknown to the Fairy Tail guild.

There was no way that Team Natsu would ever know how Lucy was doing, since she was no longer in the town of Magnolia, and all that they could do was have the stupid belief that she would return. After the way she had been treated by people who wanted to keep her from knowing that Natsu was cheating on her, why would Lucy even want to come back to Fairy Tail? She was far better off in a distant town that seemed to have a very kind atmosphere to it, unlike the drama that was in Magnolia, and Lucy would probably have more fun in a town of people who did not know her very well.

Team Natsu could only sit around a table while thinking about how the rest of their day would go, and Gray did not even mind the fact that Juvia was admiring him. Lisanna was thinking about how Natsu was so cool, and the fire dragon slayer was thinking about the idea of taking his sweet girlfriend to the beach as a way to celebrate how they finished the job. They'd probably go the beach after their fun date, but who could really care? The rest of the team looked exhausted from the harsh job, and Juvia hoped to never go to a tropical island with mage-eating plants ever again. After all, no one wanted to be a creature's food on a mission.

* * *

 **In a grassy park...**

Lucy had been using her Water Magic in a grassy park where some mages were having a good time chatting with each other, and the blonde-haired girl had been making her bubbles strike the nearby trees. Water would not be very effective against trees, which made them the perfect target for Lucy to practice on, and she was simply aiming to make her weakest spells become quite strong. After all, she did not want to lose against anyone like Melissa ever again. Some of her large blue blasts were quite powerful enough to get the attention of other mages, but the trees were quite durable.

This was due to the fact that they were infused with Plant Magic that other mages had used on them, making them be able to even withstand metal blades that were made for the purpose of cutting down the trees, and Lucy enjoyed practicing on them. She was getting better with releasing energy from the weak spells, as she had used the small bubbles as a solo attack for the eighth time in a row, and Lucy was panting heavily from using up so much magical power. Her spell had gotten somewhat stronger, as it was infused with Lucy's magical power, and the girl with cocoa brown eyes smiled happily at how it could massively power up her fusion spells.

At the same time, however, Lucy also knew that there was a limit to the number of spells that she could use in a battle. That would be the drawback of having fusion spells with great power, as she could only use at least four in a battle, and four would probably not be enough to really stop extremely powerful opponents. Anzu may have been powerful, yes, but her defenses without the poison shell were quite weak. Lucy could not exactly underestimate any opposing mages, as they'd probably fight at high levels of strength, so Lucy really had to step it up a notch with her skills.

She fell backwards on to the green grass while panting, unable to use anymore spells for a while, and Lucy smiled at the fact that she was making progress. Even if her moves could not destroy a tree, at least they were getting powerful. She hoped that this new level of skill would be impressive, and Lucy looked forward to training for a few more hours. She planned to get strong, regardless of what her old friends would think, and Lucy hoped that her new friends would show her some respect. She knew that respect had to be earned, and Lucy hoped to earn it through a great amount of hard work.

As she looked up at the clouds, smiling at her happy thoughts of going on adventures with her friends, Lucy did not even know that her training had caught the attention of a black-haired girl who sat on a nearby bench. This girl had violet eyes that went well with the purple bow that was on the left side of her head, and she wore a purple T-shirt with some black pants to match as well. They complimented the amethyst purple flat shoes that this girl was wearing, and this girl also had purple bracelets on both of her wrists. She got up from the brown wooden bench to check out the pink guild mark that was visible on Lucy's right hand, smirking as she walked toward the blonde-haired mage.

"Wow. I can't say that I'm shocked. Typical mage from Fairy Tail, thinking that power is all you need to make spells get boosted up into high amounts of power." The girl told Lucy with a rude smirk on her face, snickering at how Lucy couldn't really adapt to how moves were used in this town.

The mage with cocoa brown eyes asked in an offended manner while she slowly stood up to confront this girl, "Aren't you being a little rude? Who are you, anyway?"

The girl introduced herself as Melinda Yuuma, a mage who was currently in the Sabertooth guild, and she lifted up her purple shirt to show Lucy the purple guild mark that was on the right side of her waist. Lucy saw this woman make a purple aura engulf her body, before stretching her arms out to aim at something straight ahead, and Lucy really had to wonder how this was going to be different from standard attacks. She saw Melinda leap back a few feet while she appeared to have a calm look in her violet eyes, and what happened next was quite amazing. Would Darkness Magic in the Flux category be something worth watching?

Lucy found herself having to leap out of the way quickly, as Melinda fired seven purple spheres of Darkness Magic into the air, and Lucy gasped in awe at how the spheres slowly floated around in the air while they were not even touching each other. Melinda was moving her hands in a slow psychic manner, closing her eyes while the projectiles began to merge together for the sake of forming a large sphere, and Melinda could feel this move's energy building up to a great level of power. She pressed her hands forward, before closing her fists quickly, and this caused the large sphere to break into several miniature spheres!

They all came down to the ground, creating a large amount of purple glitter that appeared in a spiraling formation, and many large purple blasts transpired within the ring of glitter! Lucy was quite awestruck at the amount of Darkness Magic being used in this move, even though it was seven weak spheres merging together while they were all affected by the infusion of power, and she was also shocked by the purple explosions ascending into the air! Seven powerful explosions occurred in the air, before the smoke came back down in the form of purple glitter that amazed many people in the park, and Melinda smiled while bowing politely for a moment.

She let Lucy know that the master of Sabertooth, who was Sting, decided to change the rule on how magic would be used by mages in the guild. This was the creative way to use magic, as Melinda's move was so bright and dazzling, and Lucy looked a bit miffed about the fact that she couldn't do something with that level of grace. She smiled confidently while letting Melinda know that she had some fusion spells at her disposal, saying how they could be just as powerful, but this only prompted Melinda to try holding back her laughter at how Lucy was a rookie who seemed to rely on Elwater-level Water Magic.

She started to laugh quite loudly, before telling Lucy that relying only on powerful spells was not going to help her get very far as a mage, and Melinda told Lucy to not be an insult to mages who wanted to be in Magic Contests. Lucy fought back by saying she learned Water Magic for the purpose of getting stronger, but Melinda calmly told her that there was no point to using magic for strength because creativity was needed in moves for them to truly shine. Lucy calmly asked her how Magic Contests could even help the strength of moves, and Melinda sighed while pulling out a black case from the left pocket of her black pants.

The girl with black hair opened up the case for Lucy to see seven Contest Ribbons inside, and they were arranged in a clockwise manner. Melinda had gained ribbons in the colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. She let Lucy know that they had all been earned last year when Magic Contests weren't very popular, and Melinda told her that she had won in seven different categories of how the moves could be shown off. There was coolness, determination, toughness, cleverness, beauty, creepy, and cuteness. Anyone who had seven ribbons could enter something known as the Grand Contest Festival, and Melinda had entered before.

"Why should it be relevant if you competed last year? I was in the Grand Magic Games, and I helped my old friends save the world from large dragons!" Lucy told Melinda in a combative manner while seeing the violet-eyed girl look at her in a snobby way.

Melinda replied calmly, "In the Grand Contest Festival, I won some matches and reached the Top 8 of the whole tournament. I saw the Grand Magic Games last year, and you got beaten down both times. The point is, I was able to be skilled and you were pretty pathetic."

Lucy could only groan in frustration from hearing Melinda's words, possibly wanting to punch her right in the face, but the girls were interrupted by Sting and Lector arriving to check out Lucy's training. It seemed like they were too late, as Lucy was now finished with using her Water Magic, and the light dragon slayer found himself stepping in between Lucy and Melinda like a referee. He didn't want to see these two girls feuding in the park, especially since people had been watching their argument, and Sting smiled at Lucy while taking her away from the park. He knew that everyone wouldn't be friendly towards someone from Fairy Tail, especially not Melinda.

She was somewhat like Minerva, in terms of disliking weak people, but Melinda was strategic enough to not overestimate herself. As Lucy thought about how good it would've been to fight that girl, she did realize that she was not really in any condition to fight right now. Her magical power had gone down to a low amount, nearly to zero, and Sting decided that it would now be the perfect time to take Lucy to the guild of Sabertooth. After all, that was the new place where she would be living. Sting hoped that Lucy would like her new home, and he personally knew that it was quite a fine guild.

Lucy was glad that Sting had saved her from that argument, as they headed into the town of Hearthome, but she began to frown a bit while hoping that it would be possible for her to make more friends than enemies. Lucy did not even realize that she was holding Sting's hand, which caused her to blush a bit from how he had been kind enough to stop her from getting into drama, and she noticed that Sting was smiling at her in a happy way. Lucy could tell that he was a really nice guy who cared for her, so she knew that changing herself meant that she had to have a desire for Magic Contests while she'd also need to think positively with smart cleverness over simple strength.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 6? Did you like it? I apologize for the story's slow pace, but it'll get better as the plot progresses. Also, Lucy's first mission in Sabertooth will occur! That may be exciting. Review this chapter, and standby for the update!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **Momentum with Creativity**

* * *

Sting had taken Lucy all the way to the central plaza in the town of Hearthome, as that was where the Sabertooth guild was located, and he was hoping that she would enjoy her new life in this town. He smiled at her while they had walked together, almost holding hands, and Sting liked the fact that Lucy had a smile that was quite pretty. It had been somewhat great to see that she was starting to feel less tense, since she had made a new rival at the grassy park, and the blue-eyed male simply wondered how that rivalry would turn out. Melinda was good enough to reach the quarter-finals of a tournament, but Lucy had still been improving with her new skills.

Even though she was not the greatest mage in the town of Hearthome, Sting knew that Lucy would just have to get creative with her moves. Even though that could be brought up many times, it was a good reminder for Lucy to not take any enemies lightly. She did have trouble against fighting Melissa in the Old Chateau, after all, and it seemed like she had only weakened Anzu for the sake of having someone else kill her with ease. Whoever managed to take down that poisonous woman had been quite strong, and their Darkness Magic seemed to be on a pretty high level. They were possibly quite talented, or they could've won with simple luck.

Lucy kept thinking about how she could make all of her moves be really appealing, even if she had to create new spells for certain displays of tactical Water Magic, and she began to smile happily from the sight of the Sabertooth guild coming into view. She was glad that she'd be allowed to join Sabertooth, since it did look even better than the exterior of the Fairy Tail guild, and the blonde-haired girl noticed that there was something in front of the guild that also had a nice bit of appeal to it. She could only gasp in awe at what she was seeing, even though it would seem so ordinary to anyone who lived in Hearthome Town for a long while.

She looked over at the fountain in front of the guild, seeing the beautifully flowing fountain of water make the Sabertooth symbol at random instances, and the brown-eyed girl could smell the lovely aroma of cherry perfume flowing through the air. Even though the guild was near a perfume shop, Lucy happily giggled at the strength of the sweet scent. It had been quite potent, filling up most of the town, but the owners of the perfume shop liked to change scents for every day of the week. They could make the town smell quite nice, and that really complimented the beauty of the fountain's water.

Turning her brown eyes away from them, Lucy gasped in shock from noticing the Sabertooth guild situated behind the fountain. The building was identified by a large red banner, covered in lines and sporting light edges, which bears the guild's symbol, held up by an horizontal staff secured via a chain to a metal ring, adorned by fang-like protrusions, which topped the high pole sustaining the emblem. The banner looked really interesting, as Lucy felt somewhat intrigued by its cool design, but the Sabertooth guild itself would make Lucy be amazed.

Sabertooth's headquarters itself appeared to be a very large saffron-colored complex consisting of several structures joined together. Some of them were even sitting on top of the others, generating an imposing, elongated structure vaguely reminiscent of an odd pyramid adorned by a multitude of facades, windows and pillars, as well as by some pointed towers protruding upwards from its upper part. Topping the whole structure was a massive gold statue portraying the animal which is the guild's namesake, a saber-toothed cat with its jaws open.

The Sabertooth guild looked so prestigious to Lucy on the outside, and she could only mouth the words of someone who looked greatly impressed by an amazing sight like this. She took a few steps back to really look at the whole guild, and the blonde-haired girl was really in awe at the place where she would be living. It would definitely be better than sleeping at a table in a bakery, that's for sure. A light pink blush appeared on her cheeks, as she happily hugged Sting for taking her to a guild that looked so very grand, and Lucy sighed happily while she gently wrapped her arms around her friend's neck.

Sting began to blush while hugging back, as he never expected Lucy to have her cleavage touching his chest, and he tried to take his mind off of it by smelling the strawberry shampoo that had been in her hair. The user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic thought that Lucy's blonde hair looked quite beautiful, but his heart began to palpitate slightly faster from the fact that he was so close to Lucy's breasts. They felt so large and warm, having a lovely roundness that could really only be inferior to the size of Erza's larger breasts, and Sting resisted his urges to feel her chest. He certainly did not want to get slapped or be drowned in water, and Lucy was just his friend.

On top of that, she had recently experienced the pain of getting her heart broken by a stupid cheater who chose to emotionally stab her in the back. Rushing into relationships was never good, as they really would have no chance of success, and Sting wanted to build his bond with Lucy. He enjoyed the hug, though, as Lucy was the one who made the hug seem a bit long. She must've been really glad to have a decent friend by her side, especially after she had been betrayed in Fairy Tail, and Lucy actually liked how Sting had nice abs. Not only did he seem really cool, but Sting was also quite muscular.

Lucy looked up at his calm blue eyes while smiling, starting to blush more from how Sting's nice eyes made her feel somewhat enchanted, and she really liked how he acted so cool. As she broke the hug that they shared, Lucy gave Sting a happy smile while she liked seeing him start to look at her in a delighted manner. Lucy did not know what was about to happen, but she could see that Sting walked up towards the brown entrance doors of the Sabertooth guild to give Lucy a nice surprise. He had probably planned a cool party for her, or this would be just as amazing. Really, how would he surprise his new blonde-haired friend.

"You should go inside, Lucy. I've got good news for you." Sting told her in a calm tone, before opening the guild's front doors for his friend.

She responded in a happy tone while her cocoa brown eyes began to become filled with ambition, "All right, Sting! I'll be ready hear the news that you want to tell me!"

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Mirajane went outside of the Fairy Tail guild to get some mail that had recently arrived, as she had seen the mailman run off in a hurry to reach his next delivery, and the white-haired woman opened up the red mailbox to see that the guild had received a set of envelopes that mostly came in the colors of yellow and red. Mira happily smiled while she wondered if these were the rewards or bad notes from the contest that many people in Fairy Tail had tried to enter for the sake of winning a great trip to a luxurious resort, and she giggled softly while pulling out the 15 envelopes from the mailbox.

She was quite quick to run back into the Fairy Tail guild with the mail, as Mira had to think about what she'd do in the situation where she won the grand prize, and Mira simply set the letters down on an empty round table. Everyone was quite curious to see what had come in the mail, despite the fact that there were only fifteen envelopes with the names of fifteen recipients written on them, and the members of Team Natsu were the first five people to get up from the table where they had been sitting. Natsu really wanted to see if he had won, and the fire dragon slayer gently kissed Lisanna's lips while assuring her that he had an extremely good chance of winning.

Natsu walked up to the table with a large grin of excitement on his face, quite certain that the grand prize would end up in his hands, and the male with pink hair noticed that his name was on one of the seven envelopes that were red. Natsu used his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic to spit out a small flame that burned a hole in the envelope, and he pulled out a pink piece of paper that had been neatly folded by the creators of the contest. If he had been lucky to win, Natsu would possibly cheer with great joy at the fact that his affair was filled with romantic love and great fortune. Would luck shine down on him today?

He unfolded the paper to see that it told him to please try again next year, which meant that he was not the lucky winner, and Natsu burnt up the paper in absolute shock at the fact that he lost. The pink-haired male really thought that it would be impossible for him to lose, as his confidence was at quite a high level, but Natsu simply did not understand that there was nothing fair in a game of luck. He had a 1 in 15 shot of being the winner, which was now formerly the same ratio for everyone else, and Natsu would simply have to hope that one of his teammates would end up being the winner of the grand prize.

Lisanna picked up the envelope that had her name on it, seeing that the envelope was red, and the cute female with lovely blue eyes opened it up to see the unfortunate piece of paper that informed her to try again next year. She seemed a bit disappointed about it, but Lisanna chose to smile about the fact that whoever got the winning envelope would be happy with the grand prize. Erza and Gray opened up their red envelopes to see that they would receive nothing, meaning that Team Natsu's grand prize was almost ripped away from them, and Natsu could only shout in frustration.

"No way! I swear, this contest is totally rigged! We got screwed out of a grand prize!" Natsu yelled with an annoyed facial expression, before groaning in disbelief at the fact that 11 other people had a shot at winning.

Erza told him in a calm tone while her brown eyes patiently watched Mira open up her envelope, "Mira could take you and Lisanna on the trip with her, if she wins. Don't give up yet, Natsu."

Mirajane slowly opened up her red envelope to see that she had won absolutely nothing, and the same unlucky misfortune happened to Cana as well. There was only one red envelope left while the seven yellow envelopes still remained on the table, and the hand of luck had not really been in anyone's favor. Elfman ended up getting the last red envelope, but he claimed to be enough of a man to not really care about it. No one was having extremely great luck, but the red envelopes were now out of the way to let everyone see who would get the consolation prizes and the grand prize.

Juvia blushed happily while looking at Gray, not even caring that she opened up the yellow envelope with her name on it, and the Rain Woman's envelope vanished into a small puff of smoke. A large bowl of peanut butter appeared in its place, Juvia holding it in her hands, and there was also a golden spoon in the bowl as well. The blue-haired girl was not a crazy fanatic about peanut butter, but Juvia chose to eat some of it while she planned to feed the rest of it to Gray. She loved the black-haired male to a degree where she would feed him sweets, and Gray only ate them because he wanted to be a polite friend.

Gajeel opened up his yellow envelope to see it get replaced by some large iron chains, and the iron dragon slayer walked out the door with Pantherlily by his side while they weren't entirely interested in the contest. Happy cheerfully opened up his yellow envelope to receive ten large fish, much to the shock of Natsu, and it was kind of amazing how one of Natsu's best friends could win a prize while he had received nothing. Wendy looked a bit curious while she opened up her envelope, surprised to receive tons of candy, and Carla's envelope contained a bunch of large lollipops. Really, were those not sweet prizes with some sugary delight?

Levy looked quite pleased while she had picked up her yellow envelope, opening it up to see the envelope swiftly get replaced by a book on gardening for experts, and the blue-haired woman smiled softly at her prize. The last envelope in the bright color of yellow had been addressed to Loke, who was now far away with Lucy, and that only meant there was one winner for the grand prize that had been sealed within the blue envelope. Mira curiously looked down at the blue envelope to see who its lucky recipient would be, and the name of the winner turned out to be really stunning.

The winner turned out to be Lucy Heartfilia, even though she had not even entered the contest, and everyone looked quite shocked at this turn of events. Natsu could not believe that his ex-girlfriend won the grand prize, but he wasn't even paying attention to how Happy giggled in an embarrassed manner. The blue Exceed had planned to send in two entries for the chance at getting tons of fish, but Happy had been selfless enough to at least give Lucy a chance. Even though Natsu wanted to take the grand prize in Lucy's place, Gray told him to just leave it for Lucy because she'd eventually show up to the guild for a job that was crucial for paying her rent.

* * *

 **Back at the Sabertooth guild...**

When Lucy walked through the brown entrance doors, the blonde-haired girl gasped in awe at the inside of the Sabertooth guild looking like a hotel lobby with its fancy chairs, golden walls, and red carpeting. They had a brown bar like the one at Fairy Tail, but it was a self-serving bar with its machines for drinks, candy, and chips. There was even a waffle machine that dispensed waffles, and the ice cream machine stayed pretty cold with the help of Rufus having Gray's Ice-Make Magic in his memory. There was also a machine that could make pancakes as well, and they'd probably be part of a high-quality breakfast.

Lucy had more happiness in her cocoa brown eyes when she saw a machine dispensing the finest desserts that anyone could ask for, and the paintings on the walls were portraying Sting doing many poses with his red Exceed named Lector. The gold reception desk at the back of the room with two golden elevators next to it appeared to be where a Mage could join the guild. Classical music being played by a violin could be heard through a speaker somewhere in the gold ceiling, and Sting noticed his companion's smile. She was totally happy to be here, and it was a really huge step up from the Fairy Tail guild.

Two porcelain gold statues of saber-toothed cats were on each side of Sabertooth's entrance doors, and Lucy took in the elegance of it all. While she was busy admiring the lobby of the guild, she didn't notice Sting go over to the pancake machine for the sake of getting her something delicious to eat. Lucy had not eaten today, which caused her to feel quite famished, and Sting wondered if she would enjoy eating some chocolate chip pancakes. No one in the guild was able to resist them, not even Minerva, and Sting walked over to a machine that would dispense pancakes for whoever wanted to eat them.

He pushed a light brown button on the machine, since this button had a picture of a pancake above it, and then Sting proceeded to press a chocolate brown button that caused the machine to start whirring softly. In a few seconds, a golden plate of pancakes came out of the machine while some chocolate chips fell down on to the delicious pancakes. They were quickly accompanied with chocolate syrup that covered the pancakes, and Sting smiled confidently at this hot breakfast. He picked up the plate, before walking over to a table and putting the plate down, but there was something that he wanted to check out.

As Lucy walked over to the table to wait for Sting to finish his business, the blue-eyed male walked over to the request board to see the jobs that were available today. He knew that Lucy was running low on magical power because of her training from earlier, but this would be an interesting job for her to handle. There was no way that anyone could pass up a weird mission like this, especially when it would possibly play a part in Lucy getting better for the sake of entering a Magic Contest, and Sting hoped that she would end up liking it. Plus, he would enjoy getting to know her on this job. It would really help him with strengthening their bond, and he was aiming to do that.

Sting told Lucy in a calm tone while he unpinned the flyer from the request board, before confidently grinning at her, "Hey, Lucy. Check this out. I just found a great job for us, and it's in a pretty cool place. We're totally going to make this mission be a piece of cake."

The blonde-haired girl asked him in a curious tone while she picked up a clean fork that was on the table, "What are we going to do, Sting? Are we going to a beach?"

He showed her the brown flyer, which stated that a client needed some people to handle a person who was disturbing a church with their evil powers, and this church had been known as the Starry Steeple because how it was said to be quite important to people who loved to pray. The church was abandoned for a few years, however, so there would not be anyone around to get caught in the crossfire. While Sting seemed ready to handle this creep who had supposedly been a tough criminal for the Magic Council to handle, Lucy began to tremble while she began to get a bit scared.

She wasn't exactly okay with the task of confronting a pretty fierce person in a church, which was quite ironic, and Lucy really hoped that she would not end up dead. She knew that her skills with Water Magic were not the greatest skills in the world, so she had to be careful. Lucy felt like refusing to do this weird job while she wanted to pick out something else from the request board, but she also knew that getting stronger involved jobs that could be terrifying. Lucy knew that she was seeming to be afraid of a dark location, but she also knew that it would be wrong to let fear get the best of her.

Lucy was about to eat her chocolate chip pancakes to avert her mind from the tough situation, but she soon had a light pink blush on her face from Sting's left hand touching her right hand. He assured her that everything was going to be okay, and Lucy would not end up in a perilous situation ever again. Sting let Lucy know that he would be by her side, ready to protect her, and he seemed like a great guy who would never go back on his promises. Plus, Sting did realize that Lucy just needed to create moves that could be creatively used to make some epic attacks. In fact, he knew that Melinda's Darkness Magic could turn a Flux-level spell into a Goetia-level attack.

Sting knew that Lucy could make fusion spells, but those were not going to always be good trump cards for winning battles. He knew that she needed to power up her moves before she would fuse them, as the level of power would be crazily high, and powering up her moves to skillfully use them in Magic Contests was something basic that many participants had done. Even some winners in the Grand Contest Festival did that in the actual tournament, and they were really amazing. Boosting moves in a battle could be quite crucial as well, especially since enemies would probably not show mercy, so Lucy needed power and grace in her moves.

The blonde-haired girl began to smile happily while she looked at Sting, liking how he was really confident about how this job would go, and Lucy simply got up from the table to run out of Fairy Tail's entrance doors. Sting quickly followed her while seeing Lucy stop to take some bites out of her pancakes, and he could tell that she was starting to get excited about this task. He was quite excited for it as well, but it was kind of a shame that Rogue couldn't join them on the job. It seemed like Minerva teleported back to Hearthome to take him somewhere, and he was probably helping the others handle a harsh job right now.

* * *

 **Elsewhere, at Lucy's old apartment...**

Since Lucy had won the contest, Erza thought that it would only be fair to tell her that she ended up being the winner of the grand trip to a luxurious resort. Of course, Lucy would probably find it somewhat rude that the scarlet-haired woman would tell her about this. After all, Erza was one of the people who had supported Natsu's decision to oust Lucy from the team. The sword-wielding woman knew that Lucy must've been feeling really depressed, since she hadn't shown up to the guild for about three hours, and she thought it would be good to at least check up on her. She hoped that Lucy wasn't having a mental breakdown, and she also wondered if Lucy was still very emotional.

When Erza looked through one of the windows of Lucy's old apartment, she looked quite shocked to see how it looked like no one was inside. Lucy always complained about needing money to pay the rent, so she couldn't have possibly gone shopping for anything. The cabinets in the kitchen seemed to be open while they were empty as well, which meant that Lucy must've thrown out some stuff, but it was so weird to Erza that Lucy was suddenly missing. She wasn't crying in bed about the fact that Natsu had cheated on her, so where in the world could she have gone? Did Lucy go on some secret job without telling anyone?

Erza also seemed quite startled from the sight of a news crew from Crocus talking to a teenager who had blond hair, as this interview was just beginning, and the woman with scarlet red hair wanted to know why some random teen was getting an interview. It surely would not be the most exciting news in the world if he ended up catching a fish that could've killed someone, since Natsu had taken down large fish as well, but Erza looked curious as to why the brown-haired news woman was so incredibly in awe about this person. Really, what famous thing or amazing thing had he done to get this attention? Was hitting on a girl supposed to be newsworthy these days?

The female news reporter had long brown hair that fell to her hips while she wore a fancy red dress, and this woman also had lovely purple eyes. She held the microphone in front of her face while wanting to know if the cameraman was now recording, and Erza was even more surprised to see that Gray was the one who had taken a job that required a mage from Fairy Tail to work the camera for an interesting interview that would take place today. Clearly, it must've been something very great. Whatever this teen did, it was probably something that Erza could end up doing with one of her swords. After all, she was quite powerful.

She tried to mouth words to Gray, who was simply forced to smile happily while filming the news reporter known as Vivi Tsuchi, but Erza was surprised to see Gray take a step to the right for the sake of not getting Erza caught in the main footage. The camera was about to be rolling soon, since Gray had just hit the red button on the camera for it to start recording, and Erza noticed that the blond-haired teen also had orange eyes while he wore a short-sleeve cardigan with orange and white stripes. He also wore grey pants to match his brown boots, and they went well with his brown shoulder bag. Still, what did he do that was so interesting?

Vivi told the audience while she held the microphone in front her face, smiling with excitement in her violet eyes, "Hello, citizens of Fiore! This is Vivi Tsuchi with your interesting piece of news for the week! If you had heard about the mysterious destruction of the chateau in Eterna Forest, be perplexed no more! An eyewitness claims to have watched from afar, and it was exciting!"

The orange-eyed teenager excitedly responded while Vivi put the microphone to his mouth, "Yeah, it was the craziest thing I had ever seen! That green-haired woman was looking exhausted, but this girl with blonde hair and pink pajamas was in really bad shape! It looked like she was going to die, and I was lucky enough to not scream when I recognized that lady as Melissa! She's one of the fiercest criminals ever, you know!"

The teenager introduced himself as Barry Pāru, a member of the guild known as Ivy Kinoyama in the town of Hiyoku, and he even went on to say that Melissa's winds looked like they could kill a person with one attack. Even though he was stupidly forgetting about the fact that Lucy's life was saved by some mages from the prestigious guild of Sabertooth, Barry looked quite amazed to know that another person was bold enough to challenge Melissa. Even though she had defected from the guild, it wasn't like anyone could just challenge her with ease. After all, she was an S-Class criminal because of her strong Wind Magic.

Vivi looked quite shocked to hear that Melissa was incredibly strong, as this was really the first time that the green-haired woman had been in the news, and she soon became surprised from seeing Barry tell her that the blonde-haired girl in the battle was holding some keys while she did not look strong at all. Vivi calmly asked Barry if the girl's body was still in the forest, but he shook his head while simply telling her that no one was there when he went back later to see how the chateau was greatly damaged by the deadly battle. That caused Vivi to act stunned, but she was simply being shocked to boost the news channel's ratings.

Erza could only stand there in absolute shock while taking in what Barry had said, and she began to tremble in a state of disbelief. Lucy went out on a job alone with only her keys to help her take on a very dangerous criminal, and she appeared to be dying? Erza heard Vivi go on to say that the chateau had been destroyed for a few days now, but Erza never even noticed Lucy enter the Fairy Tail guild. It wasn't that Lucy hadn't shown up to the guild, but Erza and the rest of Team Natsu did not notice her or they were out on a job when she would show up. Either way, it was quite disturbing to hear that Lucy was severely injured in a fight that she couldn't handle without a team.

Gray kept focusing the camera on Barry while he was also quite shocked that Lucy got hurt, but he soon put the camera down to grab Barry by the collars of his shirt. He angrily wanted to know why Barry saw Lucy get badly hurt while he did nothing to help the situation, and the blond-haired male told him in a combative manner that it wasn't his place to get involved in a fight between two women. He also went on to say that there was nothing to worry about, if there was no bloody corpse in the forest, and he told Gray that his Plant Magic had no chance against high-level Wind Magic that could kill someone.

Vivi did not even realize that the blonde-haired girl in Barry's description had been Lucy Heartfilia, but Gray was quite angry that a fellow mage of Fairy Tail had been badly injured. Erza simply told him to cease, which made the black-haired mage gently put Barry down, and the orange-eyed teenager decided to run all the way back to Eterna Town for the sake of getting away from Gray. Barry had told them that there wasn't a body to find, though, so Erza let him run all the way back home. Vivi looked quite shocked by what had just happened while she prepared to give Gray some money, and the Fairy Tail mages were just startled by the incomplete info that they had heard.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at an abandoned church...**

Lucy and Sting finally arrived at the church that was deep in the nearby woods, both mages looking quite intrigued at the church that resembled a Gothic cathedral, and the church's large five purple towers looked quite intimidating. The client had not said anything about having to go upstairs, however, so Sting and Lucy would just have to handle this job on the ground floor. The wind blew through the air while it howled from within the old building, giving Lucy a somewhat chilling vibe of discomfort, and Sting gently hugged Lucy while letting her know that he was right by her side. They could handle whoever was in the chateau, and Sting let her know that this was no big deal.

Sting pushed opened the rose-red entrance doors to the church, looking a bit annoyed that they creaked with an incredible amount of loudness, and he knew that a sneak attack was now out of the question. He took notice of the old brown wooden benches that were on opposite sides of the church while a purple carpet was in the aisle, and it led straight to the altar. There appeared to be someone sitting in a brown chair that was up at the altar, and Lucy tried her best to not look spooked by the ghostly atmosphere. She noticed that the church's walls were white while the tiles were black, and she looked down at one of the tiles to see her reflection in it.

Sting wasted no time with firing his White Dragon's Roar at the criminal who sat in the wooden chair, but the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic was utterly surprised to see a purple flame jump in the way of his attack to create a large purple blast of darkness energy! This person proceeded to use a spell known as Dark Corpse, and they got up from the chair to slam their hands against the ground! In an instant, an ominous purple aura rose from the ground to take the shape of Lucy! It began to form a real clone of her that had purple hair and purple eyes, but this clone wore a black midriff shirt that exposed her stomach with some black shorts to match.

Lucy wanted to know what was going on, and the villain simply introduced himself as Lucian Seishin. He was a high-class criminal who had been known for terrorizing people with his Darkness Magic, and he let Lucy know that Dark Corpse was a move that cloned an opponent while it made one of the church's evil souls take over the body. The hatred of a soul could increase the power of the clone, and it wasn't like many souls of rage couldn't be infused into one body. The clone was also forced to obey Lucian's telekinetic commands, so it could probably do anything that was quite bizarre.

Before Lucy even got a chance to attack, she found herself having to spin around while surrounding herself in a large twister of water. The clone had fired a large purple orb of energy at her, but Lucy's twister bounced it right back while sending it crashing into the wall to create a massive purple blast of Darkness Magic! Lucy knew that she had to act quickly, so she used a new move known as Water Pulse to keep the dark clone from trying to fight her. A blue ball formed in between Lucy's hands, and she threw it down to the ground for the sphere to glide across a stream of water. It headed straight for the clone, and a large blue blast of Water Magic transpired!

"All right! That was a pretty major hit!" Lucy happily told Sting while wanting to cheer, as blue smoke began to fill the area.

Lucian told her in a calm manner, before chuckling evilly, "Don't celebrate so soon. Ghosts don't die, my dear."

The smoke quickly faded away to reveal that Lucy's clone didn't even have a scratch on her, and she giggled evilly while using a spell known as Dark Gravity. This move simply made the clone move her hand downward to make gravity come crashing down on Lucy's body with a high amount of force, and Lucy soon found herself under an extremely powerful purple blast! It felt like it was filled with tons of pressure, nearly breaking her bones while it could've torn her muscles apart, and Lucy realized that she certainly would have to get creative against Lucian's little creation. She prepared to use Water Pulse again, but with a little more power.

She formed the blue sphere in her hands again, but Lucy decided to throw it at Lucian this time! The man with spiky purple hair found himself having to quickly dodge the attack, before using his magic to convert the blue sphere of Darkness Magic that headed straight for Lucy, and he was shocked to see Sting suddenly punch him in the face with his Holy Nova attack! Lucian was sent flying backwards while Lucy fired a small blue bubble at the purple beam, and both mages looked quite surprised to see a purple explosion form in midair! That bubble had raised the spell's power, causing its accuracy to lower, and the remnants of the explosion ate away at a wooden bench!

The wooden bench near Lucy was now on fire, ghostly purple flames destroying it with intense power, and Lucian wiped some dust off of his red tuxedo and black pants while informing her that Water Magic could not put out the flames of Darkness Magic. Lucy and Sting both groaned in frustration of Lucy now having to dodge a series of powerful kicks from her dark clone that giggled in a malicious manner, and Lucy felt really annoyed at how her Water Magic would not work in this situation. She even knew that scalding hot water would be of no use to her in this situation, but there was one thing that she could try to do.

She narrowed her brown eyes while jumping high up into the air, before using a move known as Bubble Release, and this move worked in a very tricky manner. Lucy spat out five blobs of water from her mouth, each of them making miniature explosions when they hit the ground, and the blue blasts began to spin in a clockwise manner when Lucy fired a blue bubble at each of them! She watched them turn into large twisters of water that headed straight for Lucian, who was now being hit by Sting's White Dragon's Roar, and Lucy decided to evolve this move even further. What was she planning to do?

Lucy used another move known as Royal Water to make some dark blue water emerge from her mouth, and she fired it at one of the twisters! This move made a sapphire blue blast swirl around inside the twister of water in a normal shade of blue, giving it a sapphire blue color, and she made it head straight for Lucian! This move was an Arcwater-level spell known as Sapphire Swamp, and this spell quickly headed straight for Lucian while the other twisters began to shine in accordance! Was Lucy creating a pretty good move for Magic Contests, or was she smiling for no reason?

"Oh, dear! It looks like I may die, but I'll end this little magician's game with an unexpected surprise! Take this gift from me, dear girl, and make me see that I'm not wrong about the level of skill I'm seeing!" Lucian told Lucy in a calm tone while confidently smirking at how he underestimated the blonde-haired girl, before making five purple flames appear on the fingertips of his right hand.

Lucy asked him in a shocked tone while making all of her twisters disperse into miniature ones that had tons of power, not caring that Lucian quickly propelled the flames off of his hand "What in the world do you mean?!"

As Lucy looked shocked at the sight of her many twisters all striking Lucian at once with Arcwater-level strength, creating a copious amount of sapphire blue blasts of energy that were all quite massive, Lucy found herself startled by the five purple flames that floated in a circle around the pink Fairy Tail guild mark on her right hand. She saw them all come down on it to form the shape of a pentagon, before they made their high amount of heat burn only the center of her right hand for a moment, and Lucy unfortunately closed her eyes to not witness that her guild mark from her former guild was being eradicated.

Sting was sent flying backwards from the copious amount of blasts that were transpiring, and he could see Lucy pass out from using so much power. Her dark clone was still standing, however, and it fired a purple beam of Darkness Magic from its mouth to cancel out Lucy's attacks. She ended up using a good move, yes, but it took up so much of her power. She couldn't even move from the exhaustion that she was now feeling, which made Sting hit the ground on purpose to quickly get up in a few seconds, and he ran over to Lucy while he did not want the evil clone to hurt her in any way.

The blue clouds of smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that Lucian was nearly dead, his mouth being open while he had taken so much damage from Lucy's fierce attack that now made blue glitter fall down from the air to look quite pretty, and Lucy's clone began to disappear into thin air. The purple aura went back down into the ground, which was really interesting to Sting, and he proceeded to pick up Lucy while hoping that she would be okay. Sting looked at the damaged church to see that anything broken would not be too out of the ordinary, but what really perplexed him was the fact that a purple tome was now at the entrance doors that would lead out of the church.

Lucy slowly opened her eyes to see that the purple tome was on the ground, and she managed to use her last bits of strength to pick up the book. It began to shine in a violet color, before a purple aura entered Lucy's body, and she started to feel revitalized. She got out of Sting's arms while smiling at him for how he helped her out not be afraid of Darkness Magic, and she looked into his calm blue eyes while liking how they were a good team. She proceeded to run out of the church with Sting, after watching the purple tome take the form of a purple aura that entered her body, and the job was now complete.

Lucian whispered to himself in a calm manner while knowing he was about to die, unable to move because of the excruciating pain from Lucy's attack, "The flames will remove the limit on that girl's magical power, thus increasing it to a level where she can truly learn to control it."

* * *

 **How was Chapter 7? Did you like it? Lucy now has Darkness Magic, but she will have to learn to work with it! Also, some major StiCy moments will start coming up! Standby for the next update!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **The First Date, Part 1**

* * *

The next morning, Lucy woke up in one of the dorm rooms at the Sabertooth guild. This was her new bedroom, as well as where she would now be living, and it looked quite different from the bedroom that Lucy had in her apartment. This room possessed a brown tiled ceiling, emerald green walls, sapphire blue carpeting that covered the entire floor, and the furniture was purple in color. The large four-poster bed was in a royal shade of purple purple with two soft pink pillows on it, and there was also a purple rectangular table in the middle of the room as well. A purple sofa stood behind the table, and there was a wide purple dresser next to a tall purple bookcase near the door.

The brown wooden door was across from Lucy's royal purple bed, and the blonde girl smiled happily while seeing a pink desk on the left side of the room with a pink heart-shaped chair to match it. There were two adjacent arched windows on the left side of her room, having red curtains that were moved away from the windows, and the sunlight beautifully shined into Lucy's dorm room. Really, this guild was definitely good with its ability to make the rooms look pretty stylish for every specific person. Sting had hoped that this room would be to Lucy's liking, based on how everything was state of the art at this guild.

Lucy removed the pink comforter off of her body, and she raised her arms high above her head. She knew that Sting was a really cool guy to be around, since he had taken her out on some cool adventures, and Lucy also thought that Sting was cool because of the fact that he was quite a smart guy. The blue-eyed male used dinnertime as a little opportunity to tell Lucy about the Darkness Magic that she could now wield, but she couldn't be expected to master it so easily. Even though it would be a little nice to catch up to Melinda, the difference in their levels of experience was far too great. After all, was Lucy really a match for someone who won seven ribbons in Magic Contests?

Lucy smiled softly while knowing that she also had Water Magic at her disposal, but she wasn't going to make a big deal about the fact that she couldn't use elements in combinations yet. She simply needed more experience before she could even participate in a Magic Contest, and the brown-eyed girl decided that it would be good to have a nice day with Sting. They did finish a job yesterday, and Lucy didn't feel like taking anyone down today. She still remembered how that villain named Lucian had been quite weird, but he was only beaten because of the fact that he seemed somewhat cocky.

As Lucy got out of bed to open up one of the arched glass windows in her room, she began to think of how Sting made her feel so happy yesterday. He was really glad that they could work together, and Sting's confident attitude always caused Lucy to smile or giggle. She liked hearing him say that he'd be Fiore's best dragon slayer, seeing him as someone who could be capable of claiming that title, and Lucy began to blush. Her cheeks became light pink when she thought about how great it was to look into Sting's beautiful eyes or see his muscular arms, and he also had rock-hard abs. Not only was he smart, but he was a hot guy with a voice that seemed to float around in Lucy's thoughts about him. Lucy did not even know that she began to slightly lean over the window, and she began to happily giggle.

"Hey, Lucy! I know that you like to have fun adventures with good battles, but it's not always good to be living on the edge." Sting told her in a calm manner while looking a bit concerned, as he stood on the ground while looking up at her.

Lucy replied in a cheerful tone while seeing Sting, thinking about how good it would be to go out on a date with him for the purpose of socializing, "Hi, Sting! It seems like a totally good morning for fun, and maybe we should go to- Whoa!"

Her suggestion was cut off by how Lucy suddenly fell out of the window, which really fitted Sting's words about how it wasn't good to always live on the edge, and Lucy quickly activated her Water Magic in an attempt to save herself. She fired five blue bubbles of water down at the ground, making these projectiles have the ability to quickly increase in size, and Lucy landed on one of the blue bubbles with ease. It felt very soft like a pillow, but then the bubble bounced her off to a different bubble. This transpired for a few more moments, before the bubbles popped to create beautiful blue glitter, and the last bubble sent Lucy bouncing high into a tree.

She sat on a tree branch while blushing nervously about what had just happened, and Lucy embarrassingly looked at her chuckling friend. Sting didn't think Lucy ever needed a spell like that, but it was kind of funny to see her get bounced up into a tree. Sting could guess that the weird spell had some use, despite the fact that it wasn't a really explosive move, but at least Lucy could try utilizing it in a Magic Contest. She was able to climb down the tree without getting hurt, and Lucy smiled when she made it down to the green grass that was next to the ground. As she walked across the grass, Lucy realized that it would be good to ask her laughing friend about going on a little date.

Lucy knew that it was still breakfast time, but she'd really be happy to spend most of her day with Sting. She would also make sure that they wouldn't go out on dates in any abandoned churches or cemeteries, and Lucy hoped to have another fun day with Sting. The white dragon slayer gave her a confident grin again, causing her to nicely smile at him, and this made it easier for her to tell him about the date. Lucy had a great amount of happiness in her eyes while she proceeded to ask Sting out, telling him that they could go eat waffles or pancakes at a diner to start things off, and the blonde-haired girl also told the light dragon slayer that they'd also have tons of fun.

Sting began to smile at the thought of going out on a date with Lucy, as it would give them time to have a good amount of happy fun, and he simply nodded his head in approval. This prompted Lucy to give Sting a happy hug, before her face blushed a light shade of pink at how he hugged her back, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard began to think about where they should go. Lucy did not exactly know Hearthome Town like the back of her hand yet, so she would have to tell Sting where they'd be going for their date. Plus, it would also be quite fun to see Sting be her tour guide for the day.

Before they could really go away from the Sabertooth guild, Lucy looked down at her clothes to see that she was still wearing some pink pajamas. Those weren't exactly the best choice for a date, so she simply ran into the guild to go up the left staircase that would lead to another set of stairs. Those stairs ascended to the third floor, the floor where Lucy's new room was located, and she ran up the stairs at quite a fast pace. Even though Sting wouldn't really be going anywhere without her, Lucy still wanted to make haste with getting ready for the morning part of her lovely date with Sting.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Erza stood between Natsu and Gray to keep the boys from starting a really serious fight, as Gray had just told the fire dragon slayer about a shocking interview that happened yesterday, and the male with black hair told Erza that this problem was truly Natsu's fault. If he hadn't been rude enough to make Lucy feel so hurt by how she got cheated on, then she probably would've been thinking straight without anything to rile her up into taking a serious job by herself. Even though she had her spirits with her, Lucy's connection to Fairy Tail was now severed. Her presence was not sensed by anyone in Magnolia, and it was like she completely vanished.

Gray knew that something was really wrong for Lucy to be absent again, and he still remembered Barry's words about how Lucy looked like she was dying. If Lucy was truly dead now, then what could be done? The only action that could be taken was to hold Natsu responsible, since he had been the one to kick her off of the team, and the pink-haired male would have to face some sort of punishment. Even though there was no sign of Lucy's corpse in Eterna Forest, there wasn't any sure way to make sure that she wasn't dead or rotting somewhere. Gray felt like he wanted to scream at Natsu, and this was something that wouldn't be easy to handle.

Natsu angrily defended himself from Gray's words about him being the one responsible for the possible death of Lucy, as he had nothing to do with which job she took, and he told Gray that it wasn't his choice to send Lucy off on a mission that she couldn't handle. If she was dead, then her killer should be at fault. Natsu told Gray that he shouldn't be acting high and mighty because of the fact that he didn't follow Lucy to see if she was doing something that would end up being too much for her, and the fire dragon slayer went on to say that there was no reason that Gray couldn't have gone after her.

The user of Ice-Make Magic shot back with how they had to handle the job on that tropical island, so there was no one who could go after Lucy. He told Natsu that Lucy's body was not found, and her keys were also not found at the scene of where the fight took place. Gray went on to inform Natsu that he went to Eterna Forest late last night, but he only came across the rubble of the decrepit chateau. Natsu fired back with how Lucy's body was not found, so there was nothing to be getting furious about. He simply told Gray to stop being stupid, and Natsu looked at Lisanna while hoping that she would back him up on this.

The white-haired girl sat down at the round table while she was calmly trying to stop her friends from fighting, and Lisanna told Gray that Lucy could've crawled all the way to the town of Eterna. If the chateau was not that far from the forest's exit, which it wasn't, then Lucy could've tried going to the nearby town for medical attention. Someone would've probably seen a wounded girl trying to get into town, and they possibly took her to the hospital. Perhaps Lucy was not even conscious while she had arrived at the hospital, so maybe she was resting in bed or wrapped up in bandages.

"That's possible, but something makes me feel like that didn't happen." Gray replied to Lisanna, as that didn't seem to be part of Barry's story.

Erza told Natsu and Lisanna in a calm manner while looking stern, "We got the info about Lucy yesterday from a teenager who is in the Ivy Kinoyama guild, and he said that Lucy was attacked by a woman named Melissa. Maybe she took Lucy somewhere to finish her off, but it's still too early to assume anything major."

Gray proceeded to punch Natsu in the head for how he didn't even have enough decency to ask Lucy about where she would be going, and the male with dark blue eyes told Erza that they should try to find Melissa. The scarlet-haired mage told him that they couldn't do that because of how there were no jobs that concerned the capture of Melissa right now, and beating her up could result in that killer telling the Rune Knights that she was wrongly assaulted by mages from Fairy Tail. Not only would that get Team Natsu in trouble, but that would also reflect very badly on the guild of Fairy Tail.

Natsu didn't like being punched in the head by Gray, and the fire dragon slayer proceeded to tackle the ice mage down to the ground. This prompted Erza to kick Natsu into the air because of he was being an idiot, and the pink-haired male landed on a table where Gajeel had been sleeping. The iron dragon slayer grumpily woke up to tell Natsu about he was still being stupid as ever, and Levy was surprised to suddenly see Natsu get off of the table to leave the guild. He was quite steamed from how Gray was accusing him of being the one who caused Lucy's death, and Natsu gave a harsh glare to the male with dark blue eyes.

Lisanna got up from the table to leave the Fairy Tail guild for now, as she wanted to help Natsu calm down, and the white-haired mage walked towards Natsu with a smile on her face. She hoped that Natsu had not been the cause of Lucy taking on a dangerous job, even though he actually was the reason that she did it, and Lisanna was also hoping that Lucy was not dead. Even though the blonde-haired girl was probably taken to a hospital, there was no real guarantee that she would end up surviving. Lisanna knew that this was a really tense situation, and Team Natsu would have to find a decent way to handle it.

She gave Natsu a gentle kiss on the cheek to calm him down, and Lisanna kindly asked him if he'd like to eat some hot fudge sundaes for the sake of cheering up. She told him that there was a possibility that Lucy was alive, so it was good for him to tell Gray that there was no reason to worry. If Lucy was just recovering, then she'd probably just return to the guild in a week or two. It was pretty unfortunate that she was attacked by a dangerous criminal, and Lisanna thought of trying to hold a little party for Lucy's return. After all, some people would be really ecstatic that she got through a fight with someone who almost killed her.

Natsu began to calm his anger down while he turned his head to look at Lisanna, and the fire dragon slayer told her that he'd love to eat some sundaes with her. Natsu was quite glad that Lisanna was around to keep his mind off of the negativity that Gray made him feel, and Natsu began to think about how Lucy was really at fault for her own possible death because of how she was a total moron for taking a job that she couldn't handle with just her spirits. Natsu began to laugh about his thoughts, making Lisanna think that he was starting to cheer up, and the fire dragon slayer really started to be glad that Lucy was out of his life for a while.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at a cafe in Hearthome Town...**

Sting took Lucy to a cafe that had red walls and a white tiled floor that looked quite fancy, and they sat across from each other in pink chairs while their square table was also pink. They ate large stacks of strawberry pancakes that had been covered in red strawberry syrup, and the large plates were white. Lucy was also pleased to see that they got large cups of hot chocolate as well, which was quite sweet, and she took a bite out of one of the strawberry pancakes while loving the happy time that she was spending with Sting. Lucy was currently eating the first pancake on the stack, and she also loved looking out at the window to see the clear blue sky.

She turned her head to shockingly see that Sting was already finished with three of his pancakes, but she did have to take into account that he was a dragon slayer. Natsu once told her something about how dragon slayers could eat lots of food, since he once ate out all of the food in her former apartment, so she could see why Sting seemed quite hungry. Lucy accidentally let out a burp, however, and that caused Sting to laugh after he had swallowed his food. Hearing Lucy burp was kind of funny, especially because of how she proceeded to blush cherry red, and Sting told her that it was okay to burp on a little date.

Lucy currently wore a green midriff shirt with some blue jeans and red flat shoes to match, and she also had an orange bow on the left side of her head. Lucy's hair was down, as she never really thought of having it in a ponytail or in pigtails for dates, and she looked quite attractive. In fact, Sting kept smiling at her while they had been on this date together. He just couldn't take his eyes off of a beautiful girl like Lucy, and the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic also liked how Lucy had such a kind personality. She even thought about buying a plush doll of Lector, even though she could see Sting's red Exceed at any time, and Sting was just as famous as his cute cat.

As Sting put down his spoon and fork, he looked a little curious to hear Lucy ask him about the Darkness Magic that she had gained yesterday. She wanted to know about its properties and certain spells to base hers off of, and Sting had a calm look in his blue eyes while telling her about how Darkness Magic could be used to create spells with high amounts of energy. Sting informed her that spells of Darkness Magic could be based off of gravity or ghosts, since both of those things involved darkness in different ways, and gravity would be quite useful. Lucy could use it on enemies in the air or even pull enemies into the air, so it was somewhat useful.

The blonde-haired girl did not really know what ghostly magic would be needed, but Sting told her that she just had to think creatively about what the human mind could fear. After all, she was certainly spooked by Lucian's purple flames that were quite destructive. Purple flames were quite creepy and unnatural, almost like they were alive, and flames in a purple color could bounce around like they had a will of their own. Of course, there were more ghostly attacks besides flames. Lucy smiled cutely while Sting told her that she'd probably end up creating those on her own, so there was no need to rush anything right now.

"Hey, Sting. I've been wondering... Do you have any favorite places in this town?" Lucy asked him in a happy manner while blushing, twiddling her thumbs in a somewhat shy manner.

The light dragon slayer responded confidently while starting to think about where he'd want to take Lucy, "Well, there's a flower shop that is next to Minerva's house. There's also a burger shop, and there's an ice cream store that makes the finest ice cream on this side of Fiore."

Sting kept eating his strawberry pancakes, but he did start to think about how Lucy could use her moves for Magic Contests as moves for regular battles as well. Despite the fact that she did not have as much experience as Melinda, that wasn't something to remain a problem. Sting thought about giving Lucy some ideas for new spells, but that wouldn't be necessary for this little date that was going on. Plus, Lucy was quite smart. She was probably going to create some new spells soon, and practicing with them was also quite crucial. She'd be on the path to being a good Magic Coordinator, and Sting knew that Lucy would work hard.

As he was about to get up from the table to pay for the food, he stopped to see that Lucy was looking at a red-haired girl who appeared to be holding a green case to hold her ribbons. She appeared to only have a red one and an orange one, but this girl appeared to look quite ambitious about filling up the other five spots in the ribbon case. Sting smiled at his date while telling her that she'd have to soon buy a ribbon case, as there were Magic Contests in other towns, and this news caused Lucy's eyes to twinkle brightly with joy. She really wanted to know about the Magic Contests in other towns, and they seemed cool to her.

Sting let Lucy know that each town based their Magic Contest off of their area, with the exception of Hearthome because of the fact that Sting was the guild master while he was also involved in managing the Contest Hall, and some Magic Coordinators would be required to battle or appeal with the area around the building. Magic Contests could also test a wizard's ability to work in different environments, as they normally would have to go out on jobs in different places, but there were many elements of magic while there were only seven types of ribbons that could be received.

With a look of confidence on his face, Sting told Lucy that not every type of magic was permitted in Magic Contests. For example, he let her know that Celestial Spirit Magic recently received a ban in the official Grand Contest Festival because of its rarity and because of paranoia involving levels of strength. After all, an extremely powerful Celestial Spirit Wizard could summon seven spirits with ease. That wouldn't exactly be fair to all the other competitors, especially since fighting seven more opponents would be against the rules, and there were also certain types of Caster Magic that were banned because they would be far too dangerous.

Lucy was quite happy to receive such great information, and she would be glad to only use her golden keys to assist her in fights. She had not used them yet because of how certain conditions were not fulfilled, such as how there was no water for Aquarius to use in the abandoned church, and Lucy didn't know if it would be a good idea to try mixing one of her spirits with Darkness Magic. Compatibility could really be an annoying iron wall that forbade some things to occur, but it was only part of the rules that involved magic. After all, spells would be far too berserk if there were no rules in place.

* * *

 **One hour later...**

The two mages from the guild of Sabertooth went to go check out a flower shop in the town of Hearthome, after Sting had paid for the breakfast, and Lucy was quite happy to see that the flower shop in Hearthome Town was quite different from the flower shop in the town of Magnolia. There were pots of normal flowers on some of the tables while some odd-looking flowers were on other tables, and there were even pots of dark flowers on some of the shelves. Lucy looked curious about some of the flowers that seemed really odd to her, such as some red and orange roses growing together in a pot of soil, and Sting was now ready to tell Lucy about the flowers on this side of Fiore.

He let her know that people on this side of Fiore would infuse Plant Magic into the soil, causing flowers to grow faster than normal, and magic could also help flowers look much more beautiful than normal. Some flowers would end up turning out to be rather ugly or smell horrible, which was because of discord between the Plant Magic and the other possible type of magic used to sabotage the flowers, and Lucy walked around for a few seconds before she ended up stopping at an amethyst purple flower that appeared to be poisonous. Really, why would the clerk sell this thing in the shop?

Sting told Lucy that the flower was known as a Toxic Flower, something used to poison or kill opponents in one hit, and its power simply depended on the amount of poison that was poured into the soil. Too much poison, however, would result in the Toxic Flower exploding and creating poisonous gas that could even kill its creator. Lucy was quick to back away from it, as she did not want to get poisoned, and she buried her face into Sting's chest while looking a bit scared. He gave her a gentle hug for a moment, before getting her far from the Toxic Flower, and Lucy liked how Sting had such a muscular chest.

She blushed a bit from how close she had been to him, before blushing even more at how they were next to some pots that were filled with red roses, and Lucy's nose took in the potent cherry scent of the roses. They were obviously made with really good magic, since they were smelling extremely great, and Lucy felt like buying some roses for the purpose of having them in her room. On top of that, roses would somewhat symbolize how she was starting to develop feelings for Sting. She really liked him, even though it wasn't to the point where he'd be her boyfriend, and Lucy loved her little attraction to him.

Lucy was about to buy some roses, until the price tag on one of the flower pots stated that the roses cost 70,000 jewels, and she found herself to be a bit appalled by the high prices for the sweet-smelling roses. In their defense, though, they were quite great while there was a high demand for them. In that sense, the price for the roses had to be quite hefty. Lucy walked out of the flower shop with Sting, almost holding his left hand with her right hand, and she began to smile softly from the fact that she'd get to see the town of Hearthome. It was quite a large town, and there were some cool sights to see.

"Sting, where should we go next?" Lucy asked him in a kind tone while smiling, her cocoa brown eyes full of positive energy.

The male with blue eyes replied calmly while starting to grin a bit, "Well, we could go get some ice cream or go to the nearest sundae parlor. They do make some good caramel fudge sundaes."

Lucy was about to be led somewhere by Sting, but the duo stopped for a moment to see that there was a Lacrima Vision screen appearing high in the air. These screens were normally seen in the Grand Magic Games, but Lacrima Vision screens in towns would be used for some important announcements that people needed to know about. Some of the news ads were only for recognition towards certain mages who had really become quite popular, so Sting started to fix his hair because he hoped that he would get the recognition that he really deserved. After all, he was a pretty nice and strong guy who people liked.

The Lacrima Vision screen proceeded to feature a picture of Melinda while the female announcer began to speak about the supposed "pride of Hearthome Town" for getting fifth place in last year's Grand Contest Festival, and no one really cared that she lost in the last round of the Top 8. Lucy began to turn her head away from the screen while she had to hear that Melinda cleverly won all seven of her ribbons, and the hype for the black-haired girl was quite real. Some teenage girls even spoke of how she was so incredibly cool while some guys wanted to date her, and some people even wanted to go against her.

Sting began to scoff at how the announcer made it seem like fifth place was some big achievement, since Minerva got all the way to third place in the semi-finals, but it seemed like Minerva was overlooked because of her humiliating loss against Erza Scarlet in the Grand Magic Games. Erza could possibly end up winning in a Grand Contest Festival because of her godly skills, which always made Minerva feel quite infuriated, and Lucy really had to wonder why some people got spotlight that wasn't highly deserved. If Minerva had beaten Erza, then maybe she wouldn't be seen as a cowardly woman who was weak.

As the screen began to leave the sky, Sting gave Lucy a friendly kiss on the cheek for taking him out on this nice date. Even though it was now four hours away from noon, Sting did like how this morning date was going. Lucy was not boring at all, as she seemed very excited to know about everything involving Magic Contests, and the blonde-haired girl was also very nice. Lucy didn't even seem vengeful, since she would never be the type of person to simply use Sting as a tool to get back at Natsu for cheating on her, and Sting also liked how Lucy had a great desire to get stronger. It seemed like she was really interested in Magic Contests, and she wanted to become very strategic.

Lucy enjoyed being around Sting because he was like a great teacher to her, informing her about everything that she needed to know, and the girl with cocoa brown eyes blushed from how Sting kissed her on the cheek. She loved to learn from him, and Lucy decided that she would become even more skilled for the sake of helping Sting on jobs. She loved how they were spending their morning together by checking out flowers, having many conversations about interesting topics, and eating pancakes. Lucy could only thank Sting by giving him a soft kiss that landed right above his lips, causing him to giggle somewhat, and Lucy let him hold her right hand with his left hand. They were about to walk off somewhere, but a certain woman's gasp of shock stopped them in their tracks.

This woman wearing a blue dress asked Sting in a stern tone while teleporting in front of him and seeing the blond male with Lucy, "We all got back from the mission, but you aren't even at the guild to properly greet us? Also, what the hell is SHE doing here?"

* * *

 **How was Chapter 8? Did you like it? The StiCy is starting in a pretty fun way, and it'll get even more fun when some situations collide! In fact, Lucy may find herself having to finish the rest of her date after something that's quite exciting. Standby for the update!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **The First Date, Part 2**

* * *

Lucy and Sting were both surprised to see that Minerva was back in the town of Hearthome, as they did not expect her or the others to be back so soon, and the two mages both slightly blushed a light shade of pink at the fact that they were currently on a date. Sting would not be surprised at the possibility of Minerva yelling at him for being on a date with someone who was from the guild of Fairy Tail, and the blue-eyed male would also probably get scolded for letting a trashy girl into the guild of Sabertooth. Lucy wasn't trashy, but Minerva perceived her to be a weakling who only had beauty while lacking brains or brawn.

Minerva's presence caused Lucy's cocoa brown eyes to start looking somewhat timid, as seeing the black-haired woman brought back memories of how she nearly killed Lucy in the Naval Battle that took place in last year's Grand Magic Games, and Lucy tried to keep looking calm while Minerva glared at her. It was not easy for her to seem calm or brave right now, but Lucy knew that crying or seeming weak in any way would just be a reason for Minerva to laugh at her. On top of that, she did not want to look bad in front of Sting. They were still on a date, after all, and crying out of fear would just ruin the fun that they were trying to have on this fine day.

The light dragon slayer knew that Minerva would probably try to kill him for bringing one of her worst enemies into the town of Hearthome, but he also knew that there was always a way to make something good emerge from a bad scenario. It would probably be slightly tricky to do that, but what choice did he have? Sting could tell that Minerva was far more powerful than Lucy, as the Naval Battle was a perfect example of that, and he didn't want any bloodshed to transpire right now. He looked a bit stern while seeing Minerva walk towards Lucy with a displeased facial expression, not happy at all to see her, and Sting was ready to stop a fight from breaking out.

Lucy gasped a bit while seeing the taller woman walk up to her, trying her best to not get intimidated by Minerva's mean attitude towards her, and she tightened her fists while deciding to not back down from someone who didn't like her. She knew that there were people like Natsu who really didn't like her while those people would also have their selfish or irrational reasons for their dislike of the blonde-haired mage, but dealing with irrationality would be the case in this situation. Lucy knew that Minerva hated her, solely because of how she had been weak, and it would seem easy to simply explain why she was in the town of Hearthome.

The two women began to narrow their eyes at each other, Minerva looking ready to hit Lucy with an energy wave, but the woman with green eyes began to look a bit confused at how Lucy's glare started to change into a calmer facial expression. She started to look at Minerva in a more respectful manner while smiling softly, even though Lucy was still somewhat intimidated, and Minerva wondered about what her enemy was going to say. If she made any stupid or insulting comments, then the woman with tan skin would simply have to kill Lucy with a powerful energy wave. She wasn't afraid of Erza's wrath anymore, either, so there would be no harm in taking Lucy's life.

"Minerva, I... I owe my life to Sabertooth. I'll do anything that's considered worthy of repaying you." Lucy told her in a somewhat timid tone, before gulping nervously.

Minerva asked her in a confused tone, before starting to look stern, "What in the world are you talking about, weak little fairy?"

Lucy responded by telling Minerva about how it all started when Natsu had cheated on her with Lisanna in the Fairy Tail guild, and she angrily reacted by taking a high-level job to show the fire dragon slayer that she did not deserve to be kicked off of the team. That plan did not go well because of how a mage named Melissa Venteux nearly killed her in an old chateau that was in Eterna Forest, and Lucy even brought up the fact that Melissa's Wind Magic was too much for her Celestial Spirits to handle. She was nearly dead, but Sting and Rogue were the ones who ended up saving her life from such a vicious villain.

Ever since then, Lucy vowed to get stronger. She told Minerva about the fact that a book in Fairy Tail's library gave her access to Water Magic that was quite powerful, but the Water Magic was mainly used for Magic Contests. She recently began to get better with using the Water Magic, but Lucy now had Darkness Magic that came from a tome she found in an old church. She let Minerva know that she fought hard against Lucian, a man who wielded ghastly purple flames of Darkness Magic, and the girl with cocoa brown eyes told her foe that she was on the path to improving herself while she wanted to change from being weak.

Upon hearing her story, Minerva could only tell Lucy that Erza's trash was now her personal treasure. Minerva wasn't implying anything in a romantic sense, but she gently stroked one of Lucy's cheeks with her left hand while giggling a bit. She smirked for a moment, before softly telling Lucy in a condescending manner that she did owe Sabertooth for being such a weak puppy who had to be saved, and Minerva told Lucy that she could repay the guild by joining them. Of course, there was a little twist involved with that. Even though Sting was the guild master, Minerva promptly let him know that the Sabertooth guild had to maintain its image of great strength from the best mages in Fiore.

Lucy was kind of miffed that Minerva was being rude to her while also interrupting her nice date with Sting, but her brown eyes began to be filled with curiosity from hearing that she would get the opportunity to show off her moves. Minerva was not going to battle her, as she thought that would result in Lucy getting killed, but she simply wanted to see if Lucy truly could be of use to the Sabertooth guild. After all, it would be quite satisfying to defeat Fairy Tail with one of their own former guild members. Minerva prepared to walk away while she told Lucy and Sting to meet her in the grassy park that was outside of Hearthome Town.

Lucy began to feel a mix of confidence and nervousness, since one little screw-up could result in her having to beg Minerva for acceptance into Sabertooth, but Sting quickly walked in front of her to put his hands on her shoulders. The blonde-haired girl felt her forehead get a gentle kiss from Sting, causing her to blush happily, and she looked into Sting's beautiful blue eyes while hearing him tell her to think creatively with the new Darkness Magic that she wielded. He let her know that it would probably impress Minerva, and it would also look really cool. Lucy liked the fact that Sting could cheer her up when she was feeling down or nervous, and she was quite glad to have him by her side.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Gray was currently sitting at a table with Juvia, still trying to just shake off the drama that transpired earlier, and Juvia sat next to him while she could see that the black-haired male was really worried about Lucy. He really hoped that she was alive somewhere, even if she was sleeping in a dark alley while trying to dig through trash cans for food, and he was hoping that Lucy was not dead. Gray thought about telling Mira to create some search papers to find Lucy, but he also knew that it was possible for her to be far away from the town of Magnolia. Trying to look for her would be quite tedious, and there was also another troublesome factor.

If Lucy was far away in a dangerous place, wouldn't the search team need to be composed of elite mages like Laxus and Jura? The Fairy Tail guild did have some strong people, but some of them were out on jobs right now. Erza had just gone out on a job to a mountainous area, and dragon slayers like Laxus couldn't truly follow Lucy's scent. After all, she had been missing for a few days. There wouldn't be one straight path that involved her scent, as Lucy's scent would end up being mixed in with the sweet smells of flowers in the forest of Eterna, and rain was also a factor that could hinder the search team's efforts.

It had rained in some parts of Fiore, as Gray had read in the weather section of the newspaper, so finding Lucy would be quite a difficult task. The blonde-haired girl could be anywhere, even in a port town that was known as Sunyshore, and Gray just hoped that Lucy was okay. He calmly told Juvia that they had a slim possibility of finding Lucy on a job, but he couldn't really blame it all on Natsu. As much as Gray would hate to admit that Natsu didn't entirely cause Lucy's departure from the Fairy Tail guild, the ice mage had to admit that not sticking up for Lucy was a bad move on his part. He could've at least said something to make her not feel alone, but he failed to do that.

Juvia let Gray know that things would probably be okay, as there was nothing to confirm that Lucy was dead, and the blue-haired woman told Gray that he just had to keep holding on to the positive thoughts of Lucy being alive. Gray kept trying to think that Lucy could be alive, but hearing Barry's story was something that really shocked him to the core. He felt like nothing dangerous would've ever happened to Lucy, if he had just gone along with her on that job, but it was too bad that Ultear wasn't around for time to reverse back a few days. Missing a friend was a really tough thing to deal with, especially when their current fate was unknown.

As Gray got up from the table to go out of the Fairy Tail guild for the sake of buying some food in the town of Magnolia, the Fairy Tail guild's entrance doors opened up to reveal that the news reporter named Vivi Tsuchi had come for a visit. She smiled happily while having a microphone in her left hand, not even caring that the heavy camera was in her right hand, and Juvia was nice enough to get up from the table to hold the camera that seemed to be recording footage of the Fairy Tail guild. Why was Vivi even here, though? Did she want to interview someone today, or was there some juicy gossip that had to be talked about?

Vivi told the audience in an excited manner while holding the microphone in front of her face, her lovely purple eyes being filled with delight, "Hello, citizens of Fiore! This is Vivi Tsuchi with your romantic scoop today! This is the day where we cover a love story in Fiore, and we're looking for comments about Natsu's love with Lisanna!"

Gray replied to her in a shocked manner while wondering why that relationship would even be newsworthy, "Why are you even caring about their relationship? If I find 100 jewels, would that be news for you?"

The newswoman told the male with dark blue eyes that she was looking for an interview from Natsu and Lisanna because she had heard that they were a very cute couple, and Gray simply told her that Natsu went out with Lisanna to eat some sundaes because he had felt angry. Vivi twisted this around by acting utterly shocked and amazed, wondering if that was a result of problems in their relationship, and Gray told her to not try and manipulate his words into something that was not true. They had simply gone out for sundaes, and that was it. Gray was not in a good mood today, and Vivi's presence didn't make the situation any better.

She had a happy look on her face while holding the microphone up to Gray's mouth, hearing him speak about how Natsu had been the cause of Lucy Heartfilia leaving the Fairy Tail guild, and Vivi acted shocked while she proceeded to tell the audience that Natsu was a good boyfriend to Lisanna while he was lacking social skills with other people. Gray told her to drop the acting skills while he sighed in a frustrated manner, and Juvia could tell that Gray was not quite happy. However, she also did not want him to be moping around forever about the fact that Lucy was gone. After all, Juvia really did care for Gray.

The Rain Woman proceeded to film Mira working at the bar, watching the white-haired woman smile happily for the camera, and Juvia began to think that Gray would like her more for being on camera. After all, he would get to see her kind and caring personality on video. That would be quite nice, especially since it would be sheer proof that there was someone for Gray to truly feel happiness with, and the blue-haired woman handed the camera over to Gray while she decided to start expressing her love for him. Juvia happily blushed while telling Gray that she loved him so much, wanting this video to be one that he would love forever, and the blue-haired woman smiled joyfully.

Juvia began to talk about how she needed Gray's help on a job that would be really fun, as it took place in a town that had a nice lake, and the woman with blue hair even pulled out a brown flyer from the left pocket of her brown coat. She let the black-haired male know that they had to do this job together, as it could be a really amazing thing to do today, and Gray put the camera down for the sake of looking at the flyer. He walked over to Juvia and took notice of how the reward was 600,000 jewels for giving a good battle to someone who really disliked weak mages. Juvia knew that she was strong, and she also knew that Gray could assist her with this task.

Vivi could only watch Juvia take Gray's hand while she happily ran out of the guild with him to head for a place known as Kinan Town, which was where one of the Magic Contests normally took place, and the news reporter with brown hair picked up her equipment while proceeding to walk out of the Fairy Tail guild. She looked perplexed about why anyone would ever want to go into Kinan Town, a place that was really only for mages who specialized in Magic Contests, and Vivi had once gone there for interviews with some experts in Magic Contests. She simply chose to move on to interviewing someone in another town, and wondered if Gray and Juvia could handle their job.

* * *

 **Elsewhere, at a grassy park...**

Lucy and Sting arrived at the grassy park to see that Minerva stood next to a tree, the black-haired woman giving Lucy a stern glare while wanting to see if she really had the skills to be a mage of Sabertooth, and it was now time for the blonde-haired girl to show off her new skills to her new guild members. She looked at Sting with a smile on her face, liking how he gave her a thumbs-up while confidently telling her to show Minerva that awesome Darkness Magic, and Lucy walked up to an area that would have her surrounded by five trees. Even though the trees would be infused with Plant Magic, Lucy did not care about that. After all, she wasn't working with water today.

She began to let determination enter her cocoa brown eyes, clenching her fists tightly while Lucy began to create some spells in her mind, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard used a spell known as Shadow Seance. This move simply caused four purple rings of ghastly energy to form in the sky, creating the corners of a large rhombus while they began to glow, and the rings soon merged together to form a ring that was four times the size of the original rings. It quickly detonated in a spherical blast of energy that was in a violet color, before this attack's added effect caused the gravity to pull Lucy high into the air, and purple glitter soon came down on to the park.

Minerva looked up at Lucy to see that she was now activating her second spell of Darkness Magic, which was known as Shadow Ball, and this spell simply caused Lucy to shoot out a purple ball of energy from her left hand. It came down to the ground with an immense amount of speed and power, before being lifted back up into the sky at rapid speeds by Lucy's command to reverse the spell's gravitational pull, and the spell was sent down to the ground again. It hit the ground quite hard with an intense amount of speed, creating a spinning purple blast of energy, and this move broke through the ground to create a large crater.

As Lucy floated up high in the air, she proceeded to use another move that was associated with her Darkness Magic. This move was known as Lunar Bombs, and here's how it worked. Lucy shot out a purple ball of energy from her mouth, but this one only floated in midair. It shot out three thin violet beams of energy that struck three trees, making those trees become engulfed in a purple aura, and the purple sphere began to collect the aura that was surrounding the trees. It was actually enhancing the amount of magic that was stored within the trees, before reducing their magical power to zero, and the purple sphere burst into seven violet beams that headed straight down to the ground!

They were about to strike seven different parts of the park, but Lucy activated her fourth spell of Darkness Magic. It was known as Dark Inferno, and this move simply caused seven small purple flames to float around in a circle while they danced in front of Lucy, and these spiritual flames redirected the purple beams to come towards them. The beams quickly struck the flames, resulting in many massive purple explosions transpiring, and seven of the explosions were quite large. This spell looked like it could do a lot of damage with the third spell equipped to it, and the copious amount of purple smoke clouds got the attention of a certain person who was passing by.

Lucy used some more of her magical power to show Minerva the power of the fourth spell on its own, and it simply let her shoot out small purple flames from her left hand. They caused a tree to catch on fire, before the six ghastly flames combined their energy to make the tree be destroyed in a massive violet blast of Darkness Magic, and the flames were quite glad to have helped Lucy out. The girl with cocoa brown eyes smiled happily at how she had made some good spells, not realizing that the effects of zero gravity could only last for two minutes, and Lucy began to look a bit panicky while she appeared to start falling down towards the ground.

"Oh, no! I'm not ready to die yet! I guess that my skills with gravity need improvement!" Lucy screamed while looking quite scared, as she was plummeting towards the ground at high speeds.

Sting replied in a calm manner while jumping up quite high to catch Lucy in his arms, "It's ok! I'm gonna catch you!"

Lucy kept screaming while being scared, as falling from high heights was something that she really disliked, but then she began to calm down from feeling a certain guy wrap his arms around her waist. He landed down on the ground while staying on both of his feet, holding Lucy in a bridal-style manner, and Lucy slowly opened her cocoa brown eyes to see that Sting was smiling down at her. She blushed a light shade of pink while loving how his eyes were so incredibly beautiful, and she loved how he held her with his warm hands. Lucy sighed happily from letting her thoughts about Sting enter her mind, and she began to giggle with joy.

Minerva interrupted this happy moment by looking at Lucy in quite a stern manner, before telling her that it was interesting to see that she was no longer a piece of trash. Her battle skills were quite strong, which was good, and Minerva began to grin evilly while seeing Sting help Lucy stand on her feet. The woman with green eyes walked over to the blonde-haired mage, quite pleased with that level of power, and Minerva maintained her evil smile while thinking about how lovely it would be to have someone from Fairy Tail now fighting for the guild of Sabertooth. It would certainly be quite a shock for this year's Grand Magic Games, right?

Lucy was calmly told by Minerva that she could now join the guild of Sabertooth, since she was very useful, and Minerva was a bit surprised to see Lucy hug her while not even caring that her face was gently touching Minerva's large breasts. Lucy told Minerva that she wanted to become a Magic Coordinator, which was a fancy term for a mage who wanted to be in Magic Contests, and Minerva simply broke the hug while telling Lucy that she had to gain more experience for Magic Contests. Lucy knew that her spells were quite powerful, but what kept her from entering Magic Contests?

Minerva explained to Lucy that it was good for her to use spells for offensive purposes, but moves in Magic Contests required a sense of grace with the flair of beauty added to it. She also let Lucy know that all moves could look pretty, but some great spells had to be stepping stones for other moves. Fusion spells somewhat fell into that description, but it would depend on if they were used for Magic Contests or just used offensively in a battle. In the circumstance of using spells individually, however, Minerva thought that Lucy did okay. It seemed like she was capable of striking multiple opponents with her Darkness Magic, so that was quite good.

The brown-eyed girl could only look at Minerva with a determined smile on her face, promising to work very hard, and Lucy turned around to face Sting while she was ready to give him a great hug. Minerva was about to teleport away from the park for the purpose of getting Rufus to fix it while she thought about having her own battle against Lucy at some point, but the soft footsteps of someone walking towards the group had put the time for celebration to a halt. Lucy turned to her left side to see that her new rival had watched her little training session, and let's just say that Melinda Yuuma didn't know whether to scold Lucy or laugh at her.

"Wow. If your moves are only good for the battle rounds, then you have no chance in Magic Contests. Everyone knows that the appeal round is the first part of every contest, and it looks like you'll fail every time. Oh, well. It's no surprise that a pathetic hick from Fairy Tail has no grace." Melinda told Lucy in a rude tone, before smirking rudely.

Lucy replied fiercely while clenching her fists, looking angered by Melinda's words, "Don't judge me like you know me, Melinda! We should have a battle sometime, and I'll crush you!"

Melinda began to giggle at that idea, before narrowing her violet eyes at Lucy, and the Magic Contest expert told her new rival that it would be pointless to fight someone who only had two types of magic in her arsenal. Melinda informed Lucy that she could wield seven types of magic, and it was just sad that Lucy couldn't even give her a standard three-on-three battle right now. Melinda even went as far as saying that she wasn't this inexperienced when she had first become a wizard, and she let Lucy know that the Magic Contest in the category involving beauty would involve water. She was subtly making a jab at Lucy almost getting killed at last year's Naval Battle, which was she giggled a bit about the Magic Contest that involved blue ribbons.

Lucy proceeded to walk away from the grassy park while her left hand held Sting's right hand, as she was done listening to someone who was making fun of her, and she groaned in annoyance from hearing Melinda inform her that a Magic Contest would be taking place next week in the town of Hakudan. She was possibly implying that Lucy shouldn't even bother with going there, as she'd probably just suffer from public humiliation, and even Minerva began to smirk at that thought. Just because Lucy had some powerful offensive spells, that didn't exactly mean she was now friends with Minerva.

* * *

 **One hour later...**

After drinking some glasses of sweet cherry juice at a place known as the Juice Shoppe, Sting and Lucy decided to continue their date. The two mages had spent 45 minutes in one of Hearthome Town's bookstores because of how Lucy needed some new books in her dorm room, but there was really nothing that caught her interest. On top of that, the shelves looked quite empty like many people had been checking out books. Well, to be fair, they were books on different kinds of magic. There were many mages who were in the Sabertooth guild, so it was no surprise that many of the books were checked out. In fact, Rufus checked out nine of them.

Despite the fact that Minerva had interrupted their date, Sting and Lucy still managed to make this morning be quite fun. Even though Lucy felt really nervous around Minerva while she also desired to beat the crud out of Melinda, she was glad that Sting had been by her side. He even caught her when she fell from the sky today, not letting her get severely hurt, and Lucy giggled softly to herself while liking the fact that she would have to repay Sting once again for saving her life. Even if he wouldn't want any kind of reward for saving her life, Lucy still felt that it was the right thing to do.

The brown-eyed girl was truly nice and kind, always wanting to show her gratitude to someone who greatly helped her out, but Lucy also smiled with some confidence at how she was starting to become much tougher. After all, she was starting to be mature enough to walk away from arguments that would just result in merciless beatings. Lucy had been smart enough to not get on Minerva's bad side, but Melinda was the person who she really wanted to pummel. Even if it was going to just be in a Magic Contest, the wielder of Celestial Spirit Keys would probably feel happy to shut Melinda's smart mouth. Well, that would actually require Lucy to win against her in a battle.

Putting her personal thoughts aside for a moment, however, Lucy rested her head on Sting's left shoulder while they had walked down a street together. They passed by some clothing boutiques that looked quite fancy, but shopping was not entirely possible because of the high prices. There was certainly a price to pay for looking fashionable, as the best clothes were never really available to the people who couldn't afford them, but Sting let Lucy know that she already looked quite stylish. There was no need for her to buy anymore clothes right now, as she seemed to have many great outfits, and Lucy giggled happily at how Sting gently kissed her right cheek.

Not only was he a good guy who could give sweet kisses on a date, but Sting was also the type of guy who could give nice suprises to a woman that he liked. In fact, Lucy did not even know that the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic had gone into a nearby boutique when she wasn't looking. The blue-eyed male had simply bought her something that was quite nice, even though it was just something simple, and Sting decided to pull it out from the left pocket of his blue vest. He didn't know if Lucy would even like this gift, but it was worth a shot. After all, what did Sting really have to lose?

"Listen, Lucy. I know that you're starting to like Magic Contests, so I got you a little gift for some encouragement." Sting explained in a calm tone while blushing, before proceeding to get the item out of his blue vest.

Lucy asked him in a calm manner while looking curious, "What is it, Sting? What did you buy?"

In a few seconds, Lucy began to happily smile from seeing that her friend had pulled out a cute black bow from the left pocket of his blue vest. It looked very cute, seemingly more adorable than any ribbon from Magic Contests, and Sting smiled nicely at Lucy while he handed it to her. Lucy picked up the black bow with her right hand, smiling cutely as she gazed down at the lovely little gift from Sting, and Lucy decided to put the black bow on the right side of her head. She now had an orange bow and a black bow in her hair, both of the bows looking really cute, and Lucy blushed more from the fact that Sting got her such a thoughtful gift.

She wrapped her arms around his neck in a gentle manner while blushing happily, smiling with joy at how Sting was making her have quite a nice morning, and Lucy gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. Sting blushed pink from how Lucy had such sweet lips while she also smelled incredibly wonderful, causing him to wrap his arms around Lucy's waist, and he was about to give her a nice kiss on the forehead again. Kissing her on the lips would be a little too much for the first date, and it would be too soon. Sting liked being cute with Lucy, since it wouldn't rush anything, and their chemistry was growing like a lovely flower.

Before Sting could kiss Lucy's forehead again, however, he was interrupted by the sight of Lucy's breasts pushing up against his chest. Sting blushed more at how they were so close together, not realizing that his left hand started to stroke Lucy's back in a warm manner, and he noticed that Lucy's cocoa brown eyes were twinkling with happiness. She giggled while looking at him, loving the way that he stroked her back, and Lucy backed away from him for a moment because she wanted to rest her head on his chest. This date was really the best one that Lucy had ever been on, and she really enjoyed this great morning.

Lucy got to see some of the places in Hearthome Town, and the blonde-haired girl also got to show off some of her new moves to get official acceptance into the Sabertooth guild. She was glad that things were starting to get better for her, even if she'd have to live in the same guild as Minerva and Melinda, but Lucy was mostly glad that she went on a nice date with Sting. He was such a kind and caring guy, even telling her some funny jokes that she found to be very hilarious, and having Sting by her side really caused Lucy's feelings of confidence and happiness to flare up with a fluttering warmth in her heart.

Knowing that Minerva would probably scold them for slacking off, Lucy and Sting decided to end their first date here. They proceeded to walk to the guild of Sabertooth while almost holding hands, both mages blushing a light shade of pink at how they loved to spend time together, and Sting was very happy to have some good chemistry with Lucy. He could tell from the happy look in her cocoa brown eyes that she'd probably be thinking about entering the Magic Contest in Hakudan Town, which was quite a nice start for beginners, and Sting would be cheering for Lucy because he knew that she was going to be a great mage in the guild of Sabertooth.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 9? Did you like it? The StiCy is starting to have some growing chemistry, and Lucy is feeling quite happy around Sting! In fact, more StiCy will come along when Lucy enters her very first Magic Contest! Expect some cool stuff to happen, and standby for the update!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **The First Contest: The Fair Competitor and The Sore Loser**

* * *

Lucy and Sting were currently sitting down at a table in the Sabertooth guild to have breakfast on this calm morning, as they wanted to have some plates of waffles to eat, and let's just say that today was going to be quite eventful. In fact, it was quite an important day for Lucy because this was where she would really get her chance to shine. This was the day of the Magic Contest that would take place in the town of Hakudan, the place where some beginners would tend to go for their first Contest Ribbon, and Lucy was quite excited for it. She was smiling happily while sitting down with Sting and Lector, her brown eyes full of determination for this great event.

The brown-eyed girl had spent the whole week with trying to improve her Darkness Magic, wanting to make her four spells become stronger while she also created four new spells as well, and Lucy knew that getting her abilities up to a good level would help her do well in the Magic Contest. She was not exactly a superb pro, however, so Lucy couldn't really expect to do better than everybody else. On top of that, Lucy was also smart enough to take into account that the other competitors could also be very good. She certainly needed to be ready for whoever she'd face off against, but there was one task that she had to take care of.

That was the appeal round, the portion of the Magic Contest where mages would have to show off the grace and beauty of their spells, and Lucy had truly trained for that. Battling was quite great, as Lucy could figure out the best moves to help her win in a fight, but appealing to judges was a whole different matter Trying to impress the judges would be the most mysterious part of a Magic Contest, as there was no surefire way to determine what they liked to see, and that began to make Lucy be a bit wary. She couldn't get careless with her performance, not even messing up a spell, and getting past the appeal round would make her breathe a sigh of relief.

Despite the fact that Lucy was slight nervous about her first Magic Contest, though, she knew that doing horribly in any of the rounds was not a good option. She really wanted to show off her abilities to Sting, as he'd probably be cheering her on, and he wanted to see her do greatly with her performances. The blue-eyed male had seen Lucy's practice sessions in the park, clapping happily for the times that she made her spells look incredibly beautiful, and Lucy knew that it would be bad to let Sting down. He was her main supporter, since Minerva laughed when Lucy once told her that she wanted to enter a serious Magic Contest, so there was no room for error.

The blonde-haired mage also realized that she would have to know the full set of rules about Magic Contests, as she'd hate to get disqualified on her first try, and Lucy had also heard about the rules from Sting. Some battles would have time limits, similar to the Grand Magic Games, and scoring a knockout on the opponent would be an automatic win for Lucy. If the timer ran out, the person with the most points remaining would win. If a tie occurred before the final round, though, then both competitors would be eliminated. All types of magic were welcome, but certain types of magic were restricted in the Grand Contest Festival.

"Hey, Lucy. I hope you're ready for today, and I know you'll be kicking everyone's butts." Sting told her in a calm tone while smiling happily, as he thought about how it would all go down.

Lucy told him in a somewhat nervous tone of voice, as she was starting to feel a mix of timidness and confidence, "I really hope I'll get a chance to shine. It's not like I'm the worst mage.. I mean, I'm a rookie at this.."

Sting could tell that his friend was not exactly feeling sure about entering the Magic Contest in Hakudan Town, and he made his left hand touch her right hand while he let her know that there would be nothing to worry about. The user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic told Lucy that he would be in the audience, so she would just have to let her eyes focus solely on him. Sting had a caring look in his beautiful blue eyes while he told Lucy that she could think of doing her performance as a tribute to him, and she did not need to stress over what the judges would think. After all, worrying about something would most likely make it fail to work out.

Lucy began to blush while she had looked at Sting, really liking his words of encouragement, and Lector also let Lucy know that the contest in Hakudan Town was strictly for beginners. Since Sting had been the one to really popularize the Magic Contests on this side of Fiore while he had also been a famous guild master, he had the right to set different levels of difficulty for the Magic Contests in different places. Contestants would have to show their Ribbon Cases before official entry, so someone who won a green ribbon could not obtain another. After all, it wasn't fair to people who traveled far and wide to become the best Magic Coordinators.

Lucy received a pink ribbon case from Sting on the previous day, which meant that she would have a place to keep her Contest Ribbons, and the cute girl with brown eyes pulled it out of the left pocket of her blue skirt. She had worn a simple white T-shirt and cerulean blue flat shoes as well, since she didn't really know which dress would be the best for a Magic Contest, and Lucy looked quite stylish. She also had her hair down while wearing a black bow on the left side of her head, and Lucy let her cheeks become filled with a pink blush while Sting told her about some good combos that would really get the audience excited.

Not only would the judges be doing the judging, but they would also be making sure that there were no signs of cheating involved. For example, magical power that got cancelled out in a sudden manner by unknown means would result in both competitors losing. The Raven Tail guild's antics from the Grand Magic Games in the previous year had reached the news of Magic Coordinators, and anyone who was foolish enough to have unauthorized assistance would be disqualified for at least five years. Lucy hoped that nothing bad would happen, and she slowly got up out of her chair.

Lucy raised her arms high above her head, before stretching them out in opposite directions, and she looked at a nearby clock on the guild's left wall to see that it was 9:30 a.m. right now. The Magic Contest would start in 1 hour and 30 minutes, but Lucy decided to get a head start to Hakudan Town. Sting had guided her there three times in the past week, and she wasn't shocked to see him get up with the intent to race her there. Lector followed the duo while they giggled with joy, really seeing that Lucy was pretty excited for her first Magic Contest, and it seemed like nothing could go wrong.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...**

Gray and Juvia were both thinking about the fact that they were lucky to get out of Kinan Town with no severe injuries, as they had fled from the job that required them to give a good battle to someone who disliked weak mages, and the black-haired male was quite shocked by what he had to deal with. That battling style was not standard at all, causing Gray to be utterly thrown off by how his opponent used her spells, and the ice mage was surprised at how even his ice was no match for his opponent's fire. Gray's ice was normally quite strong, but this girl's flames tore through it.

Juvia thought it would be an easy mission that could satisfy anyone, but the opponent used flames in such unorthodox ways to really throw off the Rain Woman. Her technique of fusing fireballs together was really a new move for the Fairy Tail mages to see, and even some spinning twisters of flames were quite strange. Those twisters shot out fireballs, causing Gray to realize that the client was no ordinary mage, and he retreated with Juvia. While Gray had been the type of person to give up, he had also been stunned by lava puddles that viciously exploded from within the ground's cracks. Really, weren't those flames cleverly used?

They had gotten no reward for the job, as Gray thought that their lives were far more important, and Fairy Tail was not used to that style of battling. Normally, people like Gray would use standard attacks and create strategies when it was a dire situation. Magic Coordinators, however, would get creative while making standard battling look very tactical. In a sense, brute force would not be very useful against mages who were quite clever. Gray still remembered how the opponent could make a shield of fire surround herself, and she sent his icy projectiles back as flaming spears. That was quite brutal, was it not?

The explosive power was far more dangerous than any flames that Natsu could create, which was really saying a lot, and Gray looked quite frustrated at how he was not able to defeat a powerful mage. Well, to be fair, she had been one of the best winners in Magic Contests. Kinan Town was a place that had really been meant for just the elite people, meaning that anyone who wasn't up to the standards would not be considered worthy, and even being in Fiore's best guild did not mean a thing. After all, being the winners of the Grand Magic Games gave Fairy Tail no real correlation to being experts with Magic Contests.

In fact, they did not even really know what the contests were even about. Kinan Town was an exquisite town with a place known as the Battle Maison, which was where the most skilled people in Magic Contests could go, and the Battle Maison was a fancy place where only the finest mages could fight each other. It was no place for people like Gray and Juvia, who couldn't even land one blow, and they definitely needed to meet the qualifications as well. They were only allowed into the Battle Maison because it was part of a job that was created by a client, which was allowed, but they wouldn't be allowed in on matters that were unofficial.

Juvia asked Gray in an apologetic tone while having regret in her blue eyes, thinking that it was her fault that they lost, "Gray-sama, was Juvia too weak to help you?"

The ice mage replied calmly, trying to tone down his frustration, "No, Juvia. We simply took on the wrong opponent. She was not normal."

Gray recounted the thoughts of how there were spectators even whispering that the mages from Fairy Tail had to be fools for taking on one of the Battle Maison's most elite people, and getting a public butt-kicking was not exactly the best thing for a person's reputation. He even created ice in the ocean, since the ocean's water had been quite cold, but that didn't help at all. The opponent was far too strategic for him to handle, even going as far to make the flames detonate around the ice for the sake of creating intense heat waves, and Gray did not know what he'd even be able to tell the other members of Team Natsu.

Erza would probably scold him for failing at a job so miserably while Natsu would laugh in his face, and Lisanna would probably be the only person to feel any sympathy for Gray. It wasn't his fault that he and Juvia got stuck with fighting an opponent who used abnormal moves, as Juvia did not even know what the job would truly entail, and the male with dark blue eyes had at least tried to put up a fight. It wasn't enough for him to win, though, and Gray really never liked it when he lost to any opponents. This loss reminded him of when he lost in the event known as "Hidden" in last year's Grand Magic Games, and that was humiliating.

To be fair, though, the only upside to this loss was that no one had been interfering with him during the fight. Gray still wanted redemption, as he began to clench his fists tightly in frustration, and he knew that getting stronger would really be the key to never running away from a fight ever again. He could also see that Juvia also hated to know that they did a pathetic job on that request, and they would simply have to pick out jobs that were more reasonable for their skills. After all, this loss was a real wake-up call for them. Well, it was truly a wake-up call for Juvia.

She realized that they could've ended up dead on that job, had Gray not grabbed Juvia's hand for the sake of running away from the fight, and they'd probably suffer the same fate that Lucy did. Even though it was never confirmed that she was dead, Juvia didn't want to actually end up dead. She did not want a fiery end to send her into the afterlife, as this poor choice in job choosing had been really detrimental, and Juvia was feeling lucky that she did not lose her life. Of course, this one occurrence of luck would not come in a streak. After all, relying on luck was something that could either be good or bad.

Both of the mages began to look quite down while they thought about how this loss meant that there were some strong enemies lurking around Fiore, enemies far stronger than what they could handle, and it seemed like their foes would also be getting smarter as well. Brute force meant nothing to the woman who beat down Gray and Juvia with flames, as the fire was used in strategic ways, and there was really no way to take out a foe who possessed such a high level of intelligence. Magic Coordinators were certainly an interesting type of wizards, as they could make some crafty attacks, and they were quite dangerous. (Note: The woman who beat Gray and Juvia will be revealed later on, so don't think I'm forgetting to specify a name.)

* * *

 **Elsewhere, in Hakudan Town...**

Lucy and Sting arrived in Hakudan Town, a town that had been surrounded by a large stone wall, and the mages took notice of how the town had brick pathways that were interwoven between European-style buildings. There was a large flower-shaped statue on top of a fountain that had blue water flowing quite beautifully, and some of the townspeople had gardens behind their houses. The gardens were filled with flowers that came in different colors, which was quite cool to look at, and the scent of mint perfume flew through the air to make Lucy sigh happily. This town had its own little Mint Perfume Shop, so its scent went well with the flowers that also smelled great.

The trees behind the wall had been situated on lovely green grass that had been taken care of quite well, as it looked very clean, and the gentle breeze of wind blew some green leaves off of the trees. While they slowly flew into town, Lucy curiously looked around for the building where Hakudan Town's Magic Contest would be taking place. She had a puzzled look in her cocoa brown eyes while she noticed that most of the buildings had red rooftops, but Sting calmly told her that the building for contests was nearby. It was a large building that had a pale green rooftop, and the golden ribbon painted on the front of the roof was not quite hard to miss.

Lucy and Sting walked towards the building's blue automatic sliding doors to see them slowly open up, and they let the two mages see the lobby of the place. It simply had blue walls with light green tiles on the floor, and the red reception desk was right across from the entrance. There was an open doorway to the left of the desk, and it led to the backstage area where the competitors would mostly be when they were waiting for their battles or turns in appeal rounds to begin. The doorway to the right side of the desk, however, was a simple hallway that led to the audience seats in the main room where the Magic Contest rounds would take place.

With a great look of delight on her face, Lucy pulled out the pink Ribbon Case from the left pocket of her blue skirt for the sake of showing it to the receptionist. Sting let her know that this would confirm that she was indeed a rookie, which meant that she qualified for this Magic Contest, and the blue Lacrima Crystal on the desk began to scan Lucy's face while it also scanned the dark green guild mark that was now on the right side of her waist. This scan was done for the sake of putting a person's face on the Lacrima Vision screens that would appear in the auditorium, as well as making them appear in events that could take place in a jungle or a desert, so it was a cool little feature of Magic Contests.

After the brown-eyed girl had gotten her Ribbon Case back from the receptionist, Lucy was told that she would have to go wait backstage with the other contestants who had already arrived. She really didn't want to part ways with Sting so early, but he gave her a warm kiss on the cheek for good luck. The blue-eyed dragon slayer let his good friend know that he'd be sitting down in the front row while cheering her name, and she could bring her skills down on any of the other competitors. Lector also wished Lucy good luck while giving her a high-five, and he confidently smiled while telling her to think about being the strongest wizard in the competition. The two mages parted ways from each other, Lector following Sting to the auditorium, and the day seemed to be going well.

* * *

 **20 minutes later, backstage...**

When Lucy had gone backstage to open a door that featured seven girls wearing fancy dresses while guys who wore different-colored tuxedos had walked in, she could only look somewhat embarrassed at the fact that she didn't get dressed up at all for Hakudan Town's Magic Contest. Even though she had known in advance by Sting and Minerva that it would be good to not look like a casual rookie, Lucy still made that mistake. She was able to brush it off, however, and began to think about her performance that would transpire in the appeal round. Whatever she did, it had to impress the judges.

She took notice of how some of the girls were trying to use their magic to juggle or attempting to use it in some kind of dance routine, and Lucy also noticed that some of the guys were just looking really chilled out while smirking a bit. One guy with dark green hair tied in a long ponytail had even rudely nudged Lucy while he walked by, muttering something about how he deserved this more than any of the rookies, and Lucy started to glare at him while hearing him say that they weren't even real beginners. If they were lesser than him, then why the heck was he even here right now? Really, wasn't Lucy grouped in with some interesting people?

The blonde-haired girl also noticed that there was now a Lacrima Vision screen right in front of her, causing her to step back for a moment, and Lucy began to see it create a little slideshow of the faces of people who had registered for this Magic Contest. She also got to see that some of these people had guild marks while some of the contestants spoke of how this contest would give them enough popularity to join a cool guild, and Lucy even got to hear that a few of the girls wanted to be strong like the great Minerva Orlando. If they wanted to be at her level, they had better hope that they never crossed paths with Erza. For some reason, though, the guy with dark green hair was not seen. Was that a glitch, perhaps?

Lucy even dropped her jaw at the screen now turning to the judges who sat at a table that was to the left side of the golden rectangular stage, and Rufus Lohr was one of them. He simply took the job of substituting for the judge who had gotten sick yesterday, and Rufus was the type of guy who could tell if a performance was worthy for a Magic Contest. The next judge was a woman named Kasumi Tanaka, and she wore a green shirt with white jeans while her long black hair fell to her hips. She also wore glasses over her green eyes, and the glasses had red frames. The final judge was a man with short black hair, and he simply wore a black business suit with black pants to match.

This man was known as Takumi Takahashi, the director of the Magic Contest Comittee, and he simply smiled happily while waving at the audience. The announcer of the event was a woman with purple hair who wore a fancy red dress with fancy black shoes to match, and this lady's name was Yuki Aizaki. She had a white card in her left hand that displayed the order of how the contestants would perform before the final eight would be shuffled into four different matches, and Yuki also had a microphone in her right hand. She was about to start welcoming the audience to the Magic Contest on this fine day, but Lucy's ears would have to hear something different.

"Hey, you. I'm Eita Suzuki. Just know that I'm gonna outshine all the losers here today. It'll be really nice to see, and that ribbon will be mine. After all, a garden of idiots watching me will be nice." The green-haired male rudely told Lucy while pulling out a dark green tome from the left pocket of his khaki pants.

Lucy retorted in a somewhat offended manner, "I don't think it's right to judge people who you hardly even know. Save the arrogance for the circumstance where you get to do a victory dance."

She noticed that Eita wore some shoes that were dark green like his T-shirt, and Lucy also noticed that this guy had orange eyes. He began to look at her in a rude manner, thinking that this would be a piece of cake because of how he trained for a year, but let's just say that this guy was not just planning to get that green ribbon. He'd be putting on a nice little show for the audience, and it would make him laugh with excitement. Lucy could see that there was something a bit off about Eita, but she couldn't really put her finger on it. Her thoughts were quickly dispelled by the announcement of the first performer who would take the stage, and it was a girl with long blue hair.

The Lacrima Vision screen let Lucy see that this girl looked quite confident, as she ran out of the door to go further down the hallway to be behind some red curtains, and Lucy also took notice of how Hikari wore a fancy blue dress. Her performance began quite quickly while the curtains opened up, as she spat out seven large bubbles of water from her mouth, and she fired some small needle-like projectiles of water at the bubbles that floated high in the air. They quickly turned into a multitude of small bubbles that popped in midair, creating a vast amount of blue glitter that seemed to make the audience look very happy, and even some kids were cheering greatly about it.

The judges gave Hikari some good critiques, Kasumi telling her that the simple display showed how she could create a stunning display of great beauty, and Hikari's blue eyes were filled with joy from hearing Rufus say that he wouldn't forget how the Magic Contest started off with a good performance. Takumi simply told Hikari in a calm manner that her performance was good, and she had a good chance to be in the next round. If she was that good, then how good would other people be? After Hikari had left the stage, Lucy simply noticed how the performances only lasted about one or two minutes at the most. There was a time limit of five minutes for a performance, by the way.

Surprisingly, five contestants created a shocking streak of unfortunate flubs. One girl accidentally shocked Kasumi with Lightning Magic, resulting in her elimination, and one guy was even nervous enough to make his Smoke Magic cover up the entire stage. His performance couldn't be seen at all, so he was cut from the competition. A girl with red hair had tried to dribble with a fireball, before it fizzled down into dust, and she was eliminated. Another girl became nervous enough to start singing horribly, which caused Kasumi to cover her ears while appropriately shouting in an annoyed tone, "Elimination, for sure!" The last loser was a guy with white hair who had tried to impress the judges with a yo-yo that was frozen over by his ice breath, which would seem like a winning performance, but the fact that the yo-yo became motionless in a chunk of ice was enough of a reason to remove him from the competition.

* * *

Lucy knew that she couldn't get nervous, as that would ruin her chances of winning, and she chose to not pay attention to the fact that the next person was quickly cut for using Earth Magic to create a rock that knocked them out when they threw it straight up into the air. Lucy knew that she was not going to mess up like an idiotic chump, as that would just be disgraceful to the guild of Sabertooth, and the blonde-haired girl looked quite confident while she walked out of the room to go down the hallway. Her turn was coming up quite soon, and Lucy also knew that Sting would be watching. He was gonna support her, and she couldn't let him down.

Yuki Aizaki announced to the crowd in an excited tone to get them pumped up, "All right, everyone! Let's give a warm welcome to Lucy Heartfilia from Hearthome Town! Some of you may have seen her in last year's Grand Magic Games, so this should be interesting!"

As the curtains opened up, Lucy ran out on to the stage with the intent to use the spell known as Shadow Seance, and she created four purple rings of Darkness Magic in midair. They were now forming a small square, which led Lucy into pulling out one of her Celestial Spirit Keys, and Lucy decided to open the Gate of The Ram. She summoned Aries for a brief moment, the pink-haired spirit looking apologetic while saying that she was sorry for making her wool very fluffy for today, and Lucy smiled with confidence while she told Aries to use Wool Shot at the center of the rings. The pink-haired spirit shot out four little bursts of wool that landed in the center of the rings, the pink fluff starting to become purple while the Darkness Magic caused it to levitate, but Lucy wasn't done yet.

She used a new spell known as Dark Soul, and this move simply caused a small violet vortex to form in between Lucy's hands. It grew quite large when she shot it out towards one of the rings, and the attack struck one of the purple bursts of wool. Instead of a large blast transpiring for a while, the violet blast only transpired for a moment while its waves of power caused the other rings to detonate as well. The purple blasts formed a square around Lucy, before resulting in a large amount of purple glitter falling down on to the stage, and the blasts faded away to let the judges and the audience see that Lucy and Aries were gracefully spinning around while enjoying the sight of the purple glitter like it was snow.

The audience also liked how some of the purple glitter had reached them as well, and Sting was cheering loudly for Lucy while he looked very pleased. Lector also shouted with joy, really liking Lucy's performance, and Lucy kept dancing around while the audience liked how the purple glitter had such a mystical quality to it. Lucy even made two purple flames dance around her and Aries in a circle, which was amazingly mystifying, and the cheers from the crowd were really showing the judges that this was a good performance. It was ghostly, but beautifully creative. After a few more seconds, Lucy sent Aries back to the Celestial Spirit World while she bowed politely to the crowd with a happy smile on her face.

Despite the fact that everyone in the audience seemed to like the performance, what in the world would the judges think about it? They'd either like it or hate it, and Lucy knew that Rufus would not be biased for a fellow mage in the Sabertooth guild. She began to twiddle her thumbs while giggling a bit, almost like she wasn't expecting the performance to go that well, and Lucy hoped that the judges wouldn't say anything too harsh. She could take constructive criticism, but Lucy was wanting the judges to not be incredibly rude like how Natsu would be. After all, he only had interest in talking about her faults while finding hardly anything good about her.

Rufus told her in a calm tone while smiling calmly, "Well, that performance is another one to really remember."

Kasumi spoke to Lucy in a delighted manner, an excited smile on her face while the feeling of amazement was in her green eyes, "Darling, that was splendid! Truly magnificent, if I may say that! You and your Darkness Magic worked in a great balance, and including your Celestial Spirit was a nice touch as well."

Takumi told Lucy in a stern tone while folding his arms, his eyes closed while looking somewhat stern, "Well, Lucy, I must tell you that I was shocked and completely appalled.. at how much I enjoyed that performance. You're not a klutz like the six people who just got cut, so we'll see if you did well enough to reach the next round."

Lucy could only open her mouth a bit while her eyes twinkled with delight, and she put the golden Celestial Spirit Key into the right pocket of her blue skirt. The blonde-haired girl cheered quietly to herself while walking off of the stage, proud that she did a good job, and hearing Sting cheer her name was something that caused her to blush a light shade of pink while she went back to the room where the other contestants were waiting. Hearing him give her that support had really helped Lucy bring out her best skills for that performance, and she would certainly have to thank him later for being such an awesome friend.

* * *

 **15 minutes later...**

After the judges had made their decisions about who had the best performances out of the remaining 11 contestants left in the competition, all of the competitors were required to be on stage to directly receive these results. The top eight competitors would stay in the Magic Contest while three of them would be cut from the competition, and Yuki smiled happily while she had the card in her hand. The white card had the results on it while Yuki would read the names of the eight finalists, and she was quite excited to see who would move on to the battle rounds. After all, the quarter-finals led the semi-finals and the final battle.

The first name announced was Lucy Heartfilia, which really came as a shock to the brown-eyed girl, but the results were in no particular order. They weren't going to be from best performance to the worst out of the eight that were considered to be great, but Lucy's performance had been quite awesome. She smiled happily while hearing the audience cheer her name, especially from hearing Sting cheer excitedly while saying that was how Sabertooth mages could rock a Magic Contest, and Lucy was surprised to see some people even give her a standing ovation. They were really pleased with this result, were they not?

The next name to be called out was Hikari Azure, the girl who did a splendid job with the water bubbles, and the crowd also cheered greatly for her. A group of Hikari's fans sat next to Sting and Lector, rooting for her while saying that she could put Lucy in her place, and this caused the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic to start booing about this result. He was quite surprised to see Lyon Vastia from Lamia Scale also booing in the audience, saying how any girl who wielded water would be no match for his sweet Juvia, and it seemed like some people from other parts of Fiore were starting to hear about Magic Contests.

Lucy turned around to notice that Eita was missing, which was weird like how Yuki seemed to have skipped over his performance because of how only fifteen were seen, and skipping over a name was something to only be done when someone wasn't present. Perhaps he had gone to the bathroom or something, but he would have to be a complete idiot with poor timing skills that tied in with drinking liquids or eating too much. Judging by how he had boasted about taking the green ribbon in this Magic Contest, there was no reason to skip over him without an explanation. What was going on?

Being a good competitor with curiosity, Lucy was about to ask Yuki and the judges about why Eita had been skipped over. However, there was something fishy about this. Why would he register for a Magic Contest, and miss the appeal round? He sounded like the Contest Ribbon would be his for the taking, so what was going on? As Lucy began to wonder about this, her brown eyes widened in pure shock from remembering that Eita had a dark green tome. He had said that his performance would be good to see, and a garden of idiots would be watching him. This greatly coincided with how Yuki happily stated that the battle portion of the Magic Contest would take place in the Hakudan Forest, but what happened next had really caused Lucy to see that this contest was about to be turned into no contest at all.

"All right, everyone! We'll have Lacrima Vision screens giving you footage from the forest battles that will take place in 15 minutes, so- Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Yuki stated with a happy smile on her face, before a giant brown plant root rose up from underground to constrict her.

Several more brown plant roots appeared from underneath the ground to strangle the other contestants, one of them almost being Lucy, and the audience looked shocked at what was going on right now. Sting couldn't even believe what he was seeing, as this didn't seem like part of the Magic Contest, but Lector alerted him to a guy who was using explosive green leaves to break open the glass case on a table near the stage. He laughed evilly while picking up the green ribbon from the case, before commanding a plant root to emerge from underground for the purpose of strangling Kasumi, and many people in the audience began to run away in terror.

The plant roots began to explode in large blasts that were dark green, severely injuring many of the contestants, and Lucy had created a purple flame to destroy a plant root that lunged at her. She narrowed her cocoa brown eyes while seeing that the thief causing this chaos was none other than Eita, as he smirked evilly while holding the green ribbon in his left hand like it was a trophy, and Lucy was quite shocked that this was what he had been talking about when he said that there would be a garden of idiots to watch him claim the ribbon. Whatever he was thinking, this was a complete violation of the rules.

"Eita, what the hell is your problem?! Don't you know that you have to win the battles, in order to get that?" Lucy asked angrily while clenching her fists.

Eita explained to her that a previously disqualified contestant didn't have to abide by stupid rules, and he claimed that this was payback for how Kasumi criticized his performance from last year as being violent with no room for any sort of beauty or flair to it. She said that he had a lot to learn, which caused him to try punching her in the face, but now he showed her that she had a lot to learn about his vicious Plant Magic. Eita calmly smiled while telling Lucy that playing fair was no fun for him, as he found it better to be unfair with destructive power that could blow away the other contestants with ease, and he could make threats like this with no consequences.

The male with green hair let anyone know that if they tried to attack him, then he'd constrict them to death. This building was built on grass, so it was no surprise that his plant roots could break through the floor of the building with ease. He even purposely made some plant roots slam down on the other competitors, before they exploded in dark green blasts of Plant Magic, and Lucy couldn't watch this any longer. She was going to fight Eita in a battle, but it wasn't for the ribbon. It was for everyone's safety, and to unknowingly avenge the death of a green-haired mage who had actually registered before Eita had taken him into an unattended hallway to kill him quickly with a plant root that stabbed him right in the heart.

Eita started off this battle by using a spell known as Fanged Vines, and this spell caused him to shoot out seven green vines from his left hand. They were spiky while also being dense like metal, and these vines could also explode. Lucy quickly countered by using a spell known as Dark Confusion, and this spell caused Lucy to move her hands in a psychic manner while she began to take control of Eita's vines. She moved her hands upward to make the vines rise up into the air, before they came back down to create violet blasts of Darkness Magic, and Lucy was definitely going to win.

She was caught off guard when Eita spit out some green seeds at her feet, though, and Lucy looked a bit shocked to see them create miniature dark green blasts of energy! She was sent flying up into the air, prompting Eita to jump high into the air for the sake of giving her a hard punch to the left eye, and the antagonist slammed his left elbow against Lucy's chest. She was sent crashing down into the ground, creating a cloud of smoke, and Rufus looked quite worried. He was about to go on the stage to fight Eita, but Sting gave him a look of refusal while telling him that no mage of Sabertooth would ever be defeated easily.

Lucy slowly stood up while telling Eita that this wasn't some silly game where the innocent contestants would be seen as toys for him to play with, and nothing good could ever come out of breaking rules to get revenge. She activated a new spell known as Dark Gurabirei, and this move simply caused Lucy to shoot out a purple sphere of energy from her left hand. It simply floated in midair while doing absolutely nothing which caused Eita to laugh at her in a hysterical manner, and Lucy found herself having to deal with a very dangerous spell. In fact, it seemed pretty hectic.

Eita used a move known as Garden's Frenzy, and this move caused him to shoot out a copious amount of green thorns from his right hand! They all headed straight for Lucy, causing her to leap back, and she found herself having to deal with many dark green blasts of energy that transpired! Lucy took notice of how the sharp thorns near the purple sphere of gravity had now turned violet, causing her to throw one straight at Eita, and she did not even care that he created a tree for the sake of blocking it. That little purple thorn gave her a clue about how to make this plant-wielding villain get a taste of his own creations.

As more of the thorns began to turn purple, Lucy chose to throw them all at Eita while she seemed like it had to be done in a furious frenzy. She saw that he could only create so many types of plant-based attacks with limits to his power, as he now created a Venus Flytrap that was starting to melt because he didn't have enough magical power to perfectly summon it, and the green-haired villain was shocked to see Lucy follow up with a move known as Dark Crescent. This spell caused a purple crescent-shaped projectile to be in her hand, and she threw it into the path of the purple thorns! They began to become attached to it, increasing its power to quite a high level, and what happened next was quite epic.

Many massive purple blasts of Darkness Magic transpired, mainly forming a small circle around Eita, and that was because the Dark Gurabirei spell actually made gravity be focused around the target. It also converted all spells around itself to be part of Darkness Magic, so it was a nice way to make a move betray its owner. Lucy could hear Eita screaming in pain from the blasts that were striking him with great precision, and the purple clouds of smoke cleared up to reveal that he was struggling to stand while he had been covered in blood. It looked like he really didn't know his own strength, if it had been enhanced to such a deadly level.

"I'm.. not planning to lose here. I'll get that Contest Ribbon and redemption for last year, even if I have to kill you. It deserves to be mine." Eita told Lucy in a serious tone while preparing to put all of his power into one final attack.

Lucy responded while sighing in annoyance, closing her eyes, "You know, it's too bad that you think something is rightfully yours when you don't deserve it. You don't care who you have to hurt, in order to satisfy yourself? That's too bad. Someone like you will never know how it feels to care about other people, and that's why I'll defeat you."

Eita put his power into creating one giant plant root that was headed straight for Lucy, even making the root grab her by the legs to slam her against the walls, and he was surprised to see that Lucy wasn't giving up. Even as she was getting slammed around the room, her body being covered in bruises and blood, Lucy was creating the eighth spell of Darkness Magic. It was known as Lunar Gravity Crush, and this spell caused the gravity around Eita to shift quite weirdly. It sent him up toward the ceiling, which really made him scream in pain, and the gravity came up towards him in the form of ten purple beams! He couldn't move at all, and this move could really blow the roof off of the place.

Even though it would cause ten massive blasts of energy to transpire while purple fireballs could rain down from to sky to strike opponents, Kasumi aimed her left hand at the move to cancel it out with her magic. She let Eita fall to the ground, but Rufus was nice enough to heal the guy with his Memory-Make Magic. He also memorized Minerva's Territory Magic, teleporting Eita to the center of the stage while glaring at him for ruining the Magic Contest, and Rufus wasn't shocked that everyone else glared at Eita as well. Sting and Lector were the only people who didn't leave the auditorium in terror, so they got to see how this would all end.

Eita wondered how he was suddenly feeling better while he could now move without any injuries, but he quickly bolted out of the building from seeing that the competitors were angrily glaring at him for what he had done. The antagonist left the green Contest Ribbon and his dark green tome behind, making some of the female competitors think that he was too scared to continue a battle, and the weird thing was that the battle ended when Kasumi had stopped it. She saw it as a battle in a Magic Contest, meaning that there was a time limit of five minutes, and a battle in Magic Contests could be stopped when there was a clear victor.

Kasumi put the green Contest Ribbon on top of the green tome while smiling at Lucy, telling her in a very pleased manner, "Killing is not allowed in Magic Contests, but that's not entirely why I stopped the fight. Lucy Heartfilia, you saved our lives and showed off absolute creativity with your moves. Therefore, this green ribbon has been earned by you."

As Lucy was quite shocked to see Kasumi stretch out her arms to hand her the prizes that she had earned, Sting could only come up to the stage with a happy look on his face. He hugged Lucy in an affectionate manner while telling her about the fact that her battle was extremely awesome, and some of the competitors even calmly stated that it was like watching a fight in the final round of the Magic Contest. In that sense, winning a battle that was like the final match had meant that Lucy truly just won her first Magic Contest. She turned around to the other competitors for the sake of seeing if they had any arguments, but people agreed when Hikari Azure let Lucy know that she deserved it for saving everyone from a vicious guy who really could've killed the other beginners.

Lucy stated in a happy tone while she began to smile, holding up the dark green tome and the natural green ribbon in her right hand, "All right! I just earned my first ribbon! This is definitely going in my Ribbon Case!"

Sting smiled a bit while wanting to know if Lucy wanted to celebrate by going out for some pizza, but he was quite surprised to see that her response was a kiss to his lips. It was her way of thanking him for supporting her today, even if the Magic Contest did not go as planned, and Lucy blushed while Sting wrapped his arms around her waist. She felt really glad that she was starting to become a skilled mage, especially since she used her intelligence to beat someone who only thought that strength was needed in Magic Contests, and let's just say that her great performance in the appeal round with great critiques had really caused Lucy to start getting ideas for the contests in the future.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 10? Did you like it? Lucy has done well in her first Magic Contest, but winning will not always end up being somewhat easy. With that being said, however, this victory has improved the StiCy! In fact, Sting and Lucy will decide to celebrate with some fun. Will Lucy's victory be realized, though? Standby for the update!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)**

* * *

 **Thinking Positive, and Thinking Strategically**

* * *

The next day, Sting and Lucy sat down at a black patio table that was outside of a cafe while they were eating some slices of chocolate cake on white plates. The two mages from the Sabertooth guild had mainly been fixated on today's newspaper, as the main headline in the section for Magic Contests had talked about how Lucy saved the lives of the other contestants in the contest that took place in Hakudan Town, and Lucy looked embarrassed while she blushed a light shade of pink. The blonde-haired mage did not expect to see her name end up in the newspaper, since winning one ribbon was nothing truly amazing, and Lucy even put on some glasses with green frames to hide her face.

Sting could only giggle at how Lucy was acting, before using his spoon to scoop up some of his chocolate cake, and the blue-eyed dragon slayer thought about how great it would've been to see Lucy in a pretty dress. She would probably look quite beautiful in a strapless black dress that showed off some of her back while it would also let some of her cleavage be seen, and the dress would expose her legs as well. Sting also began to fantasize about Lucy wearing black flat shoes to go with the dress, and it seemed like he would be the one to end up buying that outfit for her. Some dresses were expensive in Hearthome, but it wasn't like Sting cared.

He was quite happy that Lucy won her first Contest Ribbon, as that was a good step towards becoming a great Magic Coordinator, and Sting knew that Lucy would keep on doing well. On top of that, she now had magic from the dark green tome that Eita left behind while he ran out of the building where the first round of the Magic Contest had transpired. This was Plant Magic, a rather interesting type of magic that could be used in quite a few different ways, and plant-based magic was quite useful with magic that involved wind. They could fuse together, but fusing two types of magic together was far more difficult than fusing two spells together.

Sting had heard that Plant Magic could be quite useful for doing massive damage, as Eita had demonstrated, and it was seen by some people as a counterpart to Wind Magic. Despite that fact, however, Sting would not make Lucy do any training in a botanical garden or try to fight her in a dark forest. In fact, he wanted to celebrate this special occasion with her. They had gotten some pizza on the previous day, but Lucy was still a bit exhausted from that fight with Eita. This would be a day for her to relax, as everyone needed a day to just chill, and things could be quite fun. As Sting kept thinking about how today would be great, he was snapped out of his thoughts from hearing Lucy call his name.

She calmly told him that their kiss from yesterday felt really nice, as he was a much better kisser than Natsu, and Lucy blushed while asking him about the other Magic Contests. She seemed a bit nervous while wanting to know if the organizers would start to heighten the difficulty for each Magic Contest, as someone who wanted all seven Contest Ribbons would clearly have to earn them, and Lucy let Sting know that Melinda had once told her about the seven different categories of Magic Contests. The green ribbon was a symbol of Lucy doing well in the category for cleverness, even though she did earn the ribbon out of gratitude, but what would the other categories be like?

"The other Magic Contests follow the standard format of having an appeal round that gets followed by three battle rounds, but the type of terrain that you fight on will depend on the town. For example, a ribbon for the category of coolness will require you to ironically fight on a fiery field." Sting explained to Lucy with a calm facial expression, smiling a bit while telling her that it was always crucial to look at a town's surroundings.

Lucy replied in a happy manner while smiling, feeling cheerful to know this great piece of information, "Thank you so much, Sting! I'll do really great in Magic Contests, and then you'll someday see me in the Grand Contest Festival!"

The two mages looked into each other's eyes with admiration, as Lucy really loved how Sting was such a smart guy who wanted to help her become stronger, and Sting really loved how Lucy's confidence was starting to be seen. Even though her confidence still needed some work, Sting could see that his new girlfriend was starting to feel better about her skills. Lucy's level of power could ascend quite high, if she kept on being a great mage, and she was also quite smart. She was definitely the type of girl that Sting wanted to date, and he decided to make this day of fun be counted as their second date.

He would take Lucy to a fun place, somewhere that would feel quite nice, and Sting began to think of a place that was really great. It wasn't going to be a fancy arcade or a massive canyon that looked amazing, but it would still be a fun place. Sting would want to surprise her, though, and he would hope that she would like it. Lucy wasn't exactly the hardest person to please, but she did have a slight fear of creepy mansions. This was most likely caused by the fact that she had nearly been killed in a creepy chateau, and Lucy would never want to go through something like that again. After all, her foe had been quite a deadly woman.

Lucy got up from her chair to take notice of the clear blue sky overhead, really liking how the sunlight was shining down on the town of Hearthome, and the girl with cocoa brown eyes really felt like today was going to be just as amazing as yesterday. Sting was by her side, ready to help her with any jobs that would ever come up, and their chemistry was really improving. In fact, both of them had almost grabbed the slice of cheese pizza yesterday. Lucy and Sting had both blushed at each other, trying to let the other person eat it, and they could only kiss each other on the cheek while trying to say that they didn't want it.

Sting took notice of how Lucy was wearing a simple red shirt with some black shorts that made her butt look a bit large, which made Sting blush at Lucy for a few seconds, and he also took notice of how she also wore some black flat shoes. The blonde-haired girl was quite cute, which made Sting be quite happy that a cute girl was with a confident guy like him, and they were a pretty nice pairing. In fact, Lucy had once giggled in a cute manner when Sting tried to feed her some ice cream. Really, wasn't that just adorable? They were quite cute together, and their relationship was quite sweet like the honey-scented perfume that filled the town's air with its lovely fragrance.

With the intention to take Lucy on a surprise date, Sting got up from the table to run in the eastern direction that would lead outside of Hearthome Town. That route could take a person to the town of Seigaiha, a place that was well-known by many people on this side of Fiore for its hot springs, and a person would also get to see that the route had some trees that were filled with tasty apples. Even though Lucy did not know where the route would lead to, she still ran after Sting while wanting to know why he would just run off. If he was in a hurry to get somewhere, then Lucy would be in quite a hurry to catch up with him.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, in the town of Magnolia...**

Wendy and Carla were currently on their way back to the Fairy Tail guild, as they had just finished the job of helping someone heal some damaged trees in the nearby town of Eterna, and the two females had received a large basket of rice balls as their reward. Wendy could smell the strong amount of salt that had been put on the rice balls while her nose also sniffed out the fact that the rice balls were filled with different ingredients, and the young sky dragon slayer thought that they would taste quite great. If they were being offered up as a reward while they seemed to be freshly made, then why would they taste bad?

As Wendy looked down at the rice balls, she began to look somewhat sad at the fact that Lucy was still missing. The blonde-haired mage would probably love to eat some of the rice balls, even if they turned out to be extremely spicy, and Lucy would probably thank Wendy for giving her some delicious treats. That would not happen in reality, however, and that was because of the fact that Lucy had been missing for about two weeks now. No one even heard any updates about the destruction of the chateau in Eterna Forest, so there wasn't going to be any news about Lucy. It truly was quite sad, especially since no one in Fairy Tail even knew what had exactly happened to her.

Wendy had heard from Gray that Lucy fought against someone named Melissa, as the ice mage heard this info from a teenager named Barry, but the exact details of that fight were unknown. Barry left out the part where some mages from the guild of Sabertooth had saved Lucy's life, so the Fairy Tail guild could only assume that she was dead. The blue-haired girl felt really bad about thinking that, but there was no real way to have hope about someone being alive. If Lucy was truly alive, then she would've at least come back to the guild for the sake of letting them know that she was gravely injured.

If she was gravely injured, however, then Lucy could've used the last of her strength to make a burial site for herself. It would probably be somewhere in a deep part of the forest, as isolation could be a way for Lucy's spirit to find a form of solace, and Wendy stopped walking while tears slowly started to form in her eyes. The guild was quite different without Lucy's presence, even though Natsu and some other people were just shrugging it off like there was nothing to care about, and Wendy missed seeing Lucy's happy face. It was always great to see her smiling, but things weren't even good for Lucy in the guild of Fairy Tail.

Wendy thought about the fact that Natsu cheated on Lucy, even hearing the fire dragon slayer once say that Team Natsu was so much better without her around, and it was quite surprising that Lisanna liked being Natsu's mistress. Wendy assumed that Lisanna would hate being in a secret relationship, but it seemed like her love for Natsu was what had made her look past all the drama. Wendy even once looked inside Natsu's house to see him taking a nap with the white-haired mage, and it looked like they were both naked. The young mage with blue hair had blushed from seeing such a sight, and it was also quite weird to hear Lisanna let out a soft moan.

Carla asked Wendy in a concerned tone while looking up at her, "Wendy, what's wrong? What happened?"

The sky dragon slayer replied to her friend while wiping her tears away with her right hand, her eyes filled with sadness, "I just miss Lucy-san, Carla. We haven't seen her in weeks, and I want to see her again."

Carla told Wendy that she knew how things were difficult without Lucy around, especially since she was such a very nice person, and she would possibly return when she felt like it. Wendy kindly asked Carla if she ever had any visions of Lucy dying, but the white Exceed let her know that she hadn't sensed anything ominous. There was no real indication that Lucy had been dead, which meant that everyone who was saying that she was dead could possibly be wrong, and Carla smiled while she told Wendy that Lucy was a strong person. She was not weak like Natsu perceived her to be, so she wouldn't be the type of person to die from being hit with one attack.

The white Exceed also told Wendy that someone could've found Lucy in the forest, and maybe she was just resting in a hospital bed. Perhaps she had been too injured to even move around right now, or she could've been recovering from some surgery that had to be done. Either way, it was much better than thinking of Lucy's death. If there was no evidence to prove that she died, then why let go of the hopeful possibilities? Even if Lucy took months to recover, it would still be quite good to see her again. Wendy slowly began to cheer up, and she smiled a bit while letting Carla know that she'd start to have positive thoughts about Lucy.

As the duo started to get quite close to the Fairy Tail guild, a brown flyer appeared on the front steps that led up to the guild's entrance doors. This flyer had interestingly been dropped by Erza, as she had taken three other jobs that required her to kill some dangerous monsters, and Wendy picked up the flyer to see what was on it. Her eyes looked at it in a curious manner while she smiled softly, and this job requested a mage who could help with the task of being a judge for an event that would take place in the town of Konpeki. The reward was 300,000 jewels, and this client clearly had money to spend.

Wendy looked puzzled about the fact that this job would take place in a town that she had never heard about, but Carla informed her that a map of Fiore once showed the girls that the town of Konpeki was across the sea. It was quite far from the town of Magnolia, as a person would have to go through the town of Kabaldon while they'd also have to pass through a place known as the Ryūsa Desert, and going through a desert area to reach a calm town would be quite a long journey. Deserts were often raked by vicious sandstorms as well, so Wendy would have to be quite careful. On top of that, deserts also contained deadly pools of quicksand.

This job would not be an urgent matter, however, and that was because it would transpire in two weeks. That would be at least one or two months before the Grand Magic Games took place, and let's just say that something nice would be tied in with that great event as well. Wendy decided to run up the stairs to get inside of the Fairy Tail guild, smiling happily at how this job seemed like it would be fun, and she didn't even care to notice that Natsu and Lisanna were making out behind a nearby bush. Those two had loved each other very much, and they even felt like showing their affection for each other in some of the places that they perceived to be for lovey-dovey couples.

* * *

 **Elsewhere, in Seigaiha Town...**

Lucy caught up to Sting while noticing that a sign nearby was letting her know that they were now in the town of Seigaiha, a town that attracted tourists with its famous dumpling shop, and the town of Seigaiha was also known for having marvelous-looking villas that stood atop grassy hills. The hills overlooked a beach of golden sand that looked quite warm, the sand looking as great as the ocean waves that crashed on to it, and Lucy giggled with joy from seeing some cool stores in this town as well. There was even a store that sold items in the category of Holder Magic, and that was quite nice.

Sting turned his head to see his girlfriend looking quite happy, something that caused a smile to form on his face, and the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic was pretty glad that Lucy was pleased. He kindly let her know that they were headed to the hot springs for a nice soak, as that was his surprise for Lucy, and Sting blushed a light shade of pink at the thought of taking a bath with Lucy. He hoped that she wouldn't try to slap him for wanting to bathe with her, and Sting also hoped that no other girls in a nearby hot spring would start calling him a pervert. After all, that would be quite embarrassing to his great reputation as a cool guy.

Lucy blushed at the thought of bathing with Sting, her mind starting to think about how he would react to seeing her nude body, and the blonde-haired girl also did not want to elicit any moans of pleasure from Sting touching her in any private areas. She'd probably look really bad, and Lucy did not want to end up getting one of the hot springs dirty in any way. Plus, she knew that their relationship wasn't at that level. It would feel like a real waste to rush things, especially since a relationship had to be taken slow for it to not fall apart, so Lucy gave Sting a soft smile while she declined his offer.

It was a bit disappointing, but Sting decided to simply smile about it. For one thing, they probably wouldn't have any time alone in the hot spring because of how other tourists would be there. Lucy could end up getting touched by other guys, and Sting would not want that to happen. He could probably take them down with just his White Dragon's Roar, but would it really make sense to create a tense scene in a hot spring? After all, the hot springs were places for people to relax and enjoy themselves. Sting wouldn't want his surprise date in the hot springs to get ruined, so it was actually good for Lucy to turn it down.

Sting was about to suggest something else that he could do with Lucy, but the smell of chocolate cookies in the air had started to guide him to a nearby concession stand that sold the delicious desserts. The brown-haired woman who was selling them had announced that the cookies were only 500 jewels each, prompting Sting to walk over there for the sake of getting a box of cookies that he'd take back to the town of Hearthome. He'd most likely share them with Lucy, since she also enjoyed eating desserts that were in the delicious flavor of chocolate, and Sting was pretty glad to have saved up lots of money from jobs that were done in the past week.

"Hey, Lucy. You can go wherever you want, and feel free to have fun. I'll be buying us some cookies." Sting told her with a kind smile on his face while he was in front of the concession stand, before pulling out 10,000 jewels from the left pocket of his blue vest.

Lucy replied in a calm tone while smiling a bit, her cocoa brown eyes filled with happiness to match how she blushed from seeing Sting blow her a kiss, "All right, Sting. I'll see you later."

Since Sting was now at the concession stand, Lucy decided to go spend some time at the beach. It looked unusually empty today, almost like no one was really interested in going to the beach, and Lucy could guess that the people who were currently eating food did not want to get cramps from hastily going swimming. They were quite smart to do that, which was quite admirable, and Lucy would simply rest on the golden sand. Nothing felt better than laying on hot sand while the sun would be shining down on the beach, and Lucy would be sure to not stay on the beach for a long amount of time.

She walked straight from the entrance of Seigaiha Town to the beach of golden sand, smiling at the thought of getting to enjoy the hot sand, and Lucy also began to wonder if it was a great idea to wear her bikini underneath her clothes. There weren't exactly any changing rooms for going to the beach, as this was not the bath house where the hot springs were located, but Lucy took notice of how it looked like the beach extended to the right with a nice section of sand. Lucy giggled with joy while she decided to check it out, even though she had no idea about that part of the beach being reserved for great mages. Then again, would that really apply to someone from Sabertooth.

As Lucy walked to the beach, she was quite shocked to encounter a little girl with long blonde hair that fell to her hips. She seemed to be around Wendy's age, even having brown eyes as well, and this young girl wore a simple green dress with blue flat shoes to match. She kindly handed Lucy a black marker and a piece of paper while asking her for an autograph, and the little girl went on to explain that she had seen Hakudan Town's Magic Contest on television. She let Lucy know that her performance was just as awesome as the battle with Eita, and Lucy simply gave the girl a happy smile.

She signed her name on the paper with good penmanship, before handing it back to the young girl who introduced herself as Suki, and Lucy confidently told her young fan that she would try her best to obtain seven Contest Ribbons. This prompted Suki to giggle, and she also looked confident while telling Lucy that she would grow up to have Darkness Magic that was just as great as hers. Lucy kindly thanked Suki for letting her give out an autograph, which prompted Suki to thank Lucy for being so cool, and the mage from Sabertooth watched the young fan run all the way to a candy shop where her family was presumably waiting for her.

With that little task out of the way, Lucy headed straight for the beach. She was quite excited to enjoy the sun's rays, as the sunlight felt really good when its heat touched her skin, and Lucy also wished that she could switch to using her Water Magic. Her spells were probably going to all ascend up to Arcwater-level, which was quite high, and Lucy felt like her Darkness Magic had grown up to Nosferatu-level. That level was not as good as the Carreau-level Darkness Magic, but it was still powerful enough to earn the green Contest Ribbon for Lucy. Therefore, it was still quite useful and had a good amount of power.

* * *

 **10 minutes later...**

Lucy went to the section of the beach that had been reserved for great mages, which really meant that anyone in Sabertooth could meet that qualification because of how they won the Grand Magic Games for seven straight years, and the blonde-haired mage was quite glad that no one from Fairy Tail could bother her. After all, she certainly wouldn't want to see Natsu and Gray fighting on this beach like a couple of hooligans. Erza would probably join in as well, which would create more chaos, and Lucy was really glad to have some peace. She decided to take off her red T-shirt and her black shorts, which left Lucy in a simple orange bikini with white stars on it, and the bikini showed off most of her cleavage.

She joyfully jumped up for joy at remembering how great it felt to win her first Contest Ribbon, despite the fact that she only earned it for defeating a person who had been disqualified in the previous year, and Lucy's breasts bounced up and down for a few moments. She was about to start dancing about it, until a certain person rudely asked her to hush. Lucy looked straight ahead to see that a certain girl with black hair and violet eyes was sitting down in a beach chair, and she wore a sexy purple bikini that showed off the wonderful curves of her cleavage and her rear. Melinda and Lucy crossed paths once again, and the black-haired girl seemed to be tanning under the sun while wearing sunscreen that made her look quite shiny.

Lucy walked over to Melinda with the intent to tell her that she managed to win a green ribbon in the Magic Contest that was held in Hakudan Town, smiling confidently about her victory, but Lucy became quite shocked to hear her rival just shrug it off like it was nothing. Even though Melinda read about Lucy's victory in the newspaper before she came to the town of Seigaiha to relax, she considered it to just be a total fluke. After all, it wasn't like Lucy went up against a bunch of Magic Coordinators who were experts. She had battled amateurs, nothing more, and Melinda couldn't really respect that type of victory.

Melinda told Lucy in a snobby manner about the fact that the newspaper spoke of how Lucy earned the Contest Ribbon for defeating a sore loser, instead of going through the standard process of making it to the final match for the chance to get the Contest Ribbon, and earning a prize out of gratitude was pathetic. Melinda even went on to say that Lucy couldn't have won, even if the tournament had gone properly, and she was still in the low leagues of Magic Coordinators. She even brought up how Hikari did quite well, and Lucy just lucked out. If that was how she planned to win all her Contest Ribbons, then she really needed to go back to being stuck with the trash in Fairy Tail.

At that moment, Lucy was prepared to take down Melinda. She was very tired of being ridiculed by people, especially by this rude girl, and Lucy really felt like using the Plant Magic from Eita's tome. It would probably adapt to the spells that she desired to have, as some of his spells did not really suit her very well, and Lucy felt like unleashing eight of them on her rival. That would take up a lot of magical power, especially if she was going to just make high-level spells, and Lucy charged straight towards Melinda with the intent to punch her right in the face. She didn't like Melinda's attitude and her smart mouth, and Lucy hated how Melinda could judge her based off of preconceived notions. Just because of Lucy's losses in last year's Grand Magic Games, that didn't give Melinda the right to judge her so harshly.

Lucy threw a punch at Melinda with her right hand, only to get punched in the stomach by the violet-eyed girl who glared at her in a serious manner, and the blonde-haired mage let out a cough of pain while Melinda's punch hardly felt like a normal fist. Lucy trembled a bit while looking down at her rival's fist to see that was covered in dense sand that was brown and hard, really helping Melinda pack a punch, and Lucy felt her knees tremble while she began to fall to the ground. Having a strong amount of offense was quite good, yes, but it was quite detrimental to not have a strong amount of defense.

Melinda possessed Earth Magic, a type of magic that allowed the user to infuse rocks or sand with high amounts of strength, and the girl with black hair proceeded to create a large sand twister from the golden sand on the beach. It quickly went towards Lucy, as the brown-eyed girl couldn't recover from that harsh punch in a hasty manner, and Lucy found herself being carried up into the air by the sandstorm that engulfed her. She was being spun around at high speeds, the dense sand getting on her body while the winds were forceful enough to slice the laces that kept Lucy's orange bikini top from falling off of her body, and Lucy closed her eyes while she began to feel really dizzy.

Melinda's attack began to fade away, before letting a dizzy Lucy fall to the ground while her mind still felt as if everything was spinning like a sandstorm, and the violet-eyed girl let Lucy fall into the arms of Sting. He had finished buying cookies earlier, but the blue-eyed male had not seen Lucy on the beach. When he saw her falling out of the sky, however, that's when Sting put his boxes on the ground for the sake of running to the beach to save his sweet girlfriend. Sting told himself that he would never let anything bad happen to Lucy, especially not letting her get killed, and he narrowed his eyes at Melinda while wanting an explanation for what was going on.

"Don't look at me. The rookie in Magic Contests decided to come talk to me about her dumb victory, and then she got riled up to try throwing a punch at me. Sadly for her, I had to retaliate. Emotions can be a weakness." Melinda explained with a stern look on her face, before walking away and throwing Lucy's orange bikini top on to her chest.

Sting told his girlfriend in a calm tone while he looked down at her, smiling while knowing that she just wasn't ready to handle an expert like Melinda yet, "It's going to be okay, Lucy. You may only have one Contest Ribbon, but you'll really show people your strength when you want the other six ribbons."

He noticed that Lucy's red T-shirt and black shorts were still on the sand, prompting the user of Light Dragon Slayer Magic to gently put Lucy down for a moment, and he walked over to retrieve her clothes. He had never really dressed someone before, as even Lector could put on his own clothes, so the logical thing to do would just be to wait for Lucy to wake up. Sting was quite a patient guy, as he had waited for Lucy to wake up when she had been unconscious after that fight with Melissa, and he began to think about the time that Lector defended him last year while telling Jiemma that failure could help a person become stronger.

Sting knew that Lucy would realize that she could learn from her mistake of trying to punch Melinda, and trying to fight with no spells of Plant Magic had also been a poor move on Lucy's part. However, Sting confidently smiled while knowing that Lucy would bounce back into action with a strong desire for redemption. Even if she couldn't beat up people like Melinda or Minerva yet, she'd show people in the next few Magic Contests that she was going to become a great mage. As Sting gave Lucy a gentle kiss on the lips, his eyes were filled with a bit of happiness from knowing that he'd help her get quite far. In fact, their chemistry and teamwork would probably help the next few months go by with ease.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 11? Did you like it? It looks like Lucy has not earned a bit of respect from Melinda, but who cares? The StiCy will keep going strong, and Lucy's next Magic Contest will happen quite soon. It may seem like I'm rushing the plot, but Lucy shall develop quite majorly from these next few contests. If you're also interested in what happens on Fairy Tail's side of story, standby for the update!**


End file.
